i£x  ICtbrtB 


SEYMOUR  DURST 


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6 


AN 


ADDRESS 


DELIVERED  AT  THE 


Celebration  by  the  New  York  Hiftorical  Society, 

MAY   20,  1863,   OP  THE 

TWO  HUNDREDTH  BIRTH  DAY 


OF 


£@r.  militant  Bradford, 

WHO 

INTRODUCED  THE  ART  OF  PRINTING  INTO  THE  MIDDLE 
COLONIES  OF  BRITISH  AMERICA. 


JOHN  WILLIAM  WALLACE 

OF  PHILADELPHIA. 

Publijked,  with  an  Introductory  Note,  in  Purfuance  of  a  Refolution  of  the 
New  York  Hiforical  Society. 

PARTS   OMITTED   IN   THE   DELIVERY   BEING   NOW  INSERTED. 

"  So  that  herein  I  may  but  be  ferviceable  to  the  Truth  and  the  Friends  thereof." 

William  Bradford, 


ALBANY,  N.  Y. : 
J.  MUNSELL,  78  STATE  STREET. 
1863- 


mo 

WIS 


- 


TO  THE   MEMORY  OF 

THE  HONOURABLE  LUTHER  BRADISH,  ESQUIRE,  LL.  D., 
Lieutenant  Governour  of  the  State  of  New  York, 
PRESIDENT  OF  THE  NEW  YORK  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY, 

PRESIDENT  OF  THE  AMERICAN  BIBLE  SOCIETY, 
A  frequent  Delegate  to  Conventions  of 
THE  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL  CHURCH  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES  OF  AMERICA, 
THE  INSCRIPTION  OF  THIS  ADDRESS, 

Commemorative  of  the  Firft  Printer  of  the  Middle  Colonies  of  Britifh  America} 

Whofe  name  was  long  connected  with  the  early  hiftory  of  New  York ; 

Who  firft  on  this  Hemifphere  propofed  to  print  the  Holy  Scriptures  in  Englifh 
And  to  accompany  them  by  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer, 

OF  RIGHT  IS  DUE. 

DELIVERED  ON   AN  OCCASION  WHICH   HE  ASSISTED   TO  ORIGINATE,  AND  WHICH  AS 
ITS  PRESIDING  OFFICER, 

HIS   DIGNITY  AND   GRACE   MADE  IMPRESSIVE  AND  DELIGHTFUL, 

It  is  now,  fince  his  death, 

MOURNFULLY  AND  WITH  SENTIMENTS  OF  GRATEFUL  RECOLLECTION 
DEDICATED  TO  HIS   NAME  AND  HONOUR. 


PHILADELPHIA,  SEPTEMBER,   I  863. 


INTRODUCTORY  NOTE. 


memoration  fhould  be  made  in  this  State  of  the  charac- 
ter and  fervices  of  William  Bradford,  by  whom  the 
Art  of  Printing  had  been  introduced  into  New  York, 


OR  many  years  paft  the  idea  had  been 
,  entertained  by  members  of  the  New  York 


Hiftorical  Society  that  fome  public  com- 


and  indeed  into  the  Middle  Colonies  of  Britifh  America  generally.  Little 
was  known  by  the  publick  at  large  of  his  Life  ;  but  every  incident  which  had 
come  down  to  us,  ferved  to  reveal  a  character  of  much  more  than  common 
accomplifhment  and  ftrength.  Yet  the  name  of  this  remarkable  perfon, 
while  indeed  it  could  never  be  forgotten,  feemed,  for  a  time,  deftined  to  be- 
come a  matter  of  dim  traditionary  record  ;  and  in  another  century  might  be 
drill  further  loft  to  the  publick  knowledge  and  regard.  The  Bradford  Club, 
eftablihhed  in  this  city  a  few  years  ago,  by  a  fmall  Aflbciation  of  tafteful 
and  opulent  lovers  of  literature,  was  the  firft  indication  that  the  people  of 
this  great  Metropolis  were  not  unmindful  of  the  bleffings  which,  through 
Bradford's  efforts,  the  Art  of  Printing  had  beftowed  upon  us ;  bleffings, 
indeed,  like  other  gifts  of  a  benignant  Providence,  not  always  rightly  en- 
joyed ;  often  indeed  abufed ;  fometimes  even,  through  our  own  paffions 
and  depravity,  turned  into  calamities  themfelves;  but  bleffings  not  the  lefs, 
if  ufed  as  the  author  of  them  defigned  that  they  mould  be,  to  the  improve- 
ment of  our  minds  and  edification  of  our  hearts. 

There  feemed  too,  indeed,  in  our  very  obligations  to  the  National  Fame, 
to  be  fomething  of  a  publick  kind  due  from  the  body  which,  in  this  great 
city  of  New  York,  reprefented  more  efpecially  the  Hiftorical  inftincls 
and  duties  of  the  Country.    While  it  has  been  truly  obferved  that  either 


2  Introductory  Note. 

perfonal  or  national  vanity  may  become  bloated  on  the  contempt  and 
ridicule  of  the  reft  of  the  world,  it  had  been  remarked  at  the  fame  time 
that  an  honourable  felf-dependence,  a  manly  felf-reliance,  can  be  infpired 
in  no  way  fo  well  as  by  contemplating  as  external  to  ourfelves,  the  monu- 
ments of  one's  own  character  and  abilities.  "  Our  country  in  its  origin 
"  was  little  elfe  than  a  concourfe  of  individual  perfons,  aggregated  but  not 
"  aflbciated,  and  of  companies  cluftercd  but  not  combined.  Gradually 
"  this  dull:  and  powder  of  individuality  had  tended  to  an  organization;  a 
"  definite  principle  of  social  life  had  been  evolved.  Chara&erifticks  of  a 
"  National  Exiftence  have  been  perceived,  and  have  deepened  and  multi- 
"  plied  as  time  has  gone  on.  In  every  thing  the  dead-reckoning,  which 
"  carried  forward  the  old  wifdom  into  the  new  region  had  failed,  and 
"  new  obfervations  have  required  to  be  taken.  A  thoufand  tokens  in 
"  every  thing  from  which  we  could  prognofticate,  made  it  manifeft  that  a 
"  fpirit  indigenous  and  {elf-vital,  inhabits  our  country ;  a  fpirit  of  power, 
"  ipfa  fuis  pollens  opibus."  We  have  an  American  Literature.  Why 
mould  we  not  have  an  American  Bibliography  ?  An  American  Biblio- 
graphy did  in  fact  already  exift  ;  and  in  the  very  city  of  New  York,  the 
i  flues  of  Daye's,  or  of  Green's,  or  of  the  eldeft  Bradford's  Prefs,  have,  ever 
fince  the  inftitution  of  the  Bradford  Club,  commanded  better  prices  than 
a  good  Aldus,  or  a  good  Stephens,  or  even  than  a  good  Caxton  itfelf 
would  command  in  any  city  of  the  world.  No  Bradford  was  now  feen 
that  was  not  inftantly  purchafed,  collated,  warned,  bound  with  elegance, 
and  treafured  with  care. 

Publick  attention  had  alfo  been  frequently  called  of  late  to  the  decaying 
Hate  of  Bradford's  tomb-ftone  in  the  grave-yard  of  Trinity  Church  ;  a 
memorial  well  enough  in  its  time,  but  erected  in  the  day  of  our  fmall 
things,  decayed  by  the  lapfe  of  more  than  a  hundred  years,  and  injured 
not  very  long  ago  by  accidents  occurring  in  the  building  of  the  prefent 
Church.  Nobles  and  men  of  wealth  in  London,  difplaying  their  tafte 
and  liberality  through  the  incorporation  of  The  Roxburgh  Club,  had 
placed  within  St.  Margaret's  Chapel  at  Weftminfter,  where  Caxton  reared 
his  Prefs,  an  enduring  record  of  their  grateful  recollection.  "  Why  mall 
"  not  we" — was  the  feeling  of  many  gentlemen  in  New  York,  not  lefs  noble, 
we  may  hope,  in  all  that  conftitutes  the  true  nobility  of  man,  '  the  graces 
of  an  erect  and  manly  fpirit' — "  do  the  fame  honour  to  ourfelves  and  Brad- 
ft  ford  r"  Trinity,  herfelf,  it  was  obferved,  had  not  been  backward  in  raifing 
tributes  to  her  worthy  children  in  whatever  fphere  of  ufefulnefs  they  have 


Introductory  Note. 


3 


difcharged  their  duties  to  their  God  and  man.  And  no  more  welcome 
fight,  as  many  had  obferved,  could  greet  the  true  Republican  than  the 
cenotaph  which  me  had  erecled  to  Thomas  Swords,  Bookieller  and 
Publifher  of  our  own  city,  within  thofe  fame,  her  confecrated  walls,  where 
me  honours  the  integrity  and  learning  and  judgment  of  Richard  Harrifon  ; 
the  genius  and  patriotifm  and  ftatesmanfhip  of  Hamilton,  the  exalted  piety 
of  Hobart  himfelf. 

It  was  under  feelings  and  impreffions  of  this  kind,  that  at  a  ftated  meet- 
ing of  the  New  York  Hiftorical  Society,  held  December  2nd,  1862,  Mr. 
G.  H.  Moore  introduced  for  confideration,  the  fubjecl:  of  a  "  Publick 
"  Commemoration  of  the  Birth-Day  of  William  Bradford  on  its  Two  hun- 
"  dredth  Anniz-erfary  in  the  year  1 863  ;"  and  that  the  matter — very  favour- 
ably received  at  its  firft  fuggeftion  by  the  Body — was  referred  to  the 
Executive  Committee  for  further  aftion.  This  Committee  having  with 
ardour  and  unanimity  agreed  in  the  propriety  of  fuch  a  Celebration,  arrange- 
ments were  undertaken  to  have  the  event  commemorated  with  becoming 
effeft  and  dignity.  It  was  underftood  that  Mr.  Verplanck,  alike  one 
of  the  moft  refpecled  and  venerable  members  of  Trinity  Church 
Veftry,  and  of  the  Hiftorical  Society  of  New  York,  had  introduced 
the  fubjecl  of  a  more  enduring  Memorial  over  Bradford's  grave  to  the 
Corporation  of  the  Church  juft  named:  and  that  this  matter,  with  a  pro- 
per Religious  Office,  would  engage  the  attention  of  that  Body.  The  next 
matter  was  the  fubjecl:  of  an  Addrefs  ;  a  fubject  which  occupied  the  moft 
a&ive  intereft  of  the  Committee.  The  office,  to  whomfoever  intrufted, 
was  one  of  no  flight  difficulty.  It  feemed  defirable,  as  Bradford  had  frit 
eftablifhed  the  Prefs  in  Pennfylvania,  and  was  the  founder  there  of  that 
long  line  of  Printers,  who  in  the  language  of  one  of  the  Patriots  of  1776, 
had  "  univerfally  diftinguifhed  themfelves  by  devoting  the  Prefs  to  the  pre- 
"  fervation  and  extenfion  of  the  liberties  of  their  country,"  that  the  Orator 
of  the  Occafion  mould  be  fome  gentleman  of  Pennfylvania. 

The  following  correfpondence  now  accordingly  took  place. 

Library  of  the  New  York  Historical  Society,  ) 
New  York  City,  February  28th,  1863.  \ 

To  John  William  Wallace,  Efquire, 

Philadelphia,  Pennfylvania  : 
Sir — The  New  York  Hiftorical  Society  having  refolved  to  Commemorate  by  Suit- 
able a&s  and  proceedings  the  Birth-Day  of  William  Bradford  (our  firft  Printer,  and 


4  Introductory  Note. 


who  introduced  the  Art  into  the  Middle  Colonies  generally),  on  its  Two  Hundredth 
Anniverfary  May  20th,  1863,  we  have  the  honour  to  invite  you,  on  behalf  of  the 
Society,  to  deliver  the  Addrefs  on  that  occahon. 

Your  intereft  in  this  fubjedt  as  a  Defcendant  of  Bradford,  whofe  memory  they 
propofe  to  honour,  and  a  citizen  of  Philadelphia,  where  he  was  the  firft  to  practice  the 
Art  of  Arts,  induces  us  to  hope  that  you  will  gratify  the  Society  by  accepting  the  in- 
vitation. We  have  the  honor  to  be,  &c, 

L.  Bradish,  John  Romeyn  Brodhead, 

Geo.  Folsom,  George  Bancroft, 

Geo.  Bruce,  Andrew  Warner, 

J.  Carson  Brevoort,  G.  C.  Verplanck, 

Geo.  H.  Moore,  Augustus  Schell, 

Wm.  Menzies. 

The  Committee  were  in  due  time  gratified  by  Mr.  Wallace's  favourable 
reply. 

728  Spruce  St.,  Philadelphia,  March  nth,  1863. 
Gentlemen — I  am  obliged  by  the  invitation  with  which  you  honour  me. 
I  cannot  but  feel,  in  looking  at  fuch  names  as  are  fubfcribed  to  it,   that  there  are 
not  a  few  gentlemen  in  your  owji  Society  far  better  qualified  then  I  can  polhbly  be, 
to  addrefs  that  body  on  the  interefting  anniverfary  which  you  propofe  to  celebrate. 

My  high  refpeft,  however,  for  the  Hiftorical  Society  of  New  York,  and  for  the 
eminent  gentlemen  who  on  this  occafion  are  its  organs,  will  not  allow  me  to  decline 
a  wifh  of  theirs  fo  conveyed.  And  I  accept,  even  with  confcioufnefs  of  inability  to 
difcharge  it  as  I  could  wifti,  an  office  to  which,  in  a  manner  equally  flattering  to  my- 
felf  and  to  the  city  in  which  fome  events  in  Bradford's  earlier  career  took  place,  you 
have  been  good  enough  to  invite  me. 

I  have  the  honour  to  be,  gentlemen, 

With  perfect  truth,  your  faithful  fervant, 

J.  W.  WALLACE. 

To  the  Honourable  Luther  Bradish,  George  Folsom,  Geo.  Bruce,  J.  Carson  Bre- 
voort, Geo.  H.  Moore,  John  Romeyn  Brodhead,  George  Bancroft,  Andrew 
Warner,  G.  C.  Verplanck,  Augustus  Schell,  and  Wm.  Menzies,  Efquires. 

As  it  was  known  that  there  would  be  many  perfons  from  other  cities, 
perfons  fpec'ally  invited  by  the  Society  or  otherwife  likely  to  be  prefent, 
and  that  the  occafion  would  excite  uncommon  intereft  in  the  city  of  New 
York,  it  was  refolved  that  the  Commemorative  Addrefs  lfiould  be  deli- 
vered in  the  Hall  of  the  Union,  Cooper  Inftitute.  The  following  an- 
nouncement, which  was  made  fome  days  previoufly  in  molt  of  the  papers 
of  New  York,  will  give  the  courfe  of  the  Ceremonies  which  were  con- 
templated : 


Introductory  Note.  5 


NEW     YORK    HISTORICAL  SOCIETY. 

THE     BRADFORD  COMMEMORATION* 
May  20th,  1863. 

THE  NEW  YORK  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY  propofes  to  commemorate,  on 
its  Two  Hundredth  Anniverfary,  the  birth-day  of  William  Bradford,  who  introduced 
the  art  of  Printing  into  the  Middle  Colonies  of  Britifh  America,  by  an  addrefs  and 
other  appropriate  proceedings.  The  addrefs  will  be  delivered  by  John  William  Wal- 
lace, Efq.,  of  Philadelphia,  at  the  Hall  of  the  Union,  Cooper  Inftitute,  in  the  city 
of  New  York,  on  Wednefday  evening,  the  20th  of  May,  at  8  o'clock. 

Each  member  of  the  Society  will  receive,  on  application,  two  fingle  tickets  of  ad- 
miflion,  which  muft  be  applied  for  at  the  Library,  or  to  Col.  Warner,  No.  516  Broad- 
way, on  or  before  Monday,  the  18th  inft. 

Members  of  the  Prefs  and  veteran  printers,  and  any  defcendants  of  William  Brad- 
ford, who  may  be  prefent  in  the  city,  are  requefted  to  make  themfelves  known  to  the 
Committee,  in  order  that  they  may  be  duly  invited  to  attend. 

The  Society  will  hold  a  reception  at  the  Library,  on  Tuefday  evening,  May  21ft,  at 
8  o'clock.  Members  who  wifh  to  fecure  invitations  to  the  reception,  muft  apply  as 
above  immediately,  as  the  number  is  of  neceflity  very  ftridHy  limited,  and  they  will  be 
iffued  in  the  order  of  application  until  exhaufted. 

The  Corporation  of  Trinity  Church,  of  which  William  Bradford  was  a  Veftryman, 
from  1703  to  1710,  have  provided  for  the  reftoration  of  the  tomb-ftone  erected  to  his 
memory  in  1752,  and  a  Special  Service  will  be  held  on  the  occafion  at  the  church, 
on  Wednefday  afternoon,  May  20th,  at  3  o'clock.  The  members  of  the  Society  and 
their  guefts  are  invited  to  participate  in  the  ceremonies  at  the  church. 

An  "  Order  of  Services  to  be  held  in  Trinity  Church  May  20th,  1863, 
"  on  the  Occafion  of  the  Reftoration  of  the  Tomb-Stone  of  William  Brad- 
"ford,  Deceafed  May  13th,  1752,"  had  been  prepared  under  the  direction 
of  Trinity  Church,  and  was  now  given  forth  "  By  Authority."  The 
whole  of  the  proceedings,  both  at  the  Church  and  fubfequently,  have 
been  fo  well  narrated  by  the  accomplished  pen  of  Horatio  Gates  Jones, 
Efq.,  who,  as  Chairman  of  the  Delegation  appointed  by  the  Hiftorical 
Society  of  Pennfylvania,  to  reprefent  that  honourable  Body  at  the  celebra- 
tion, had  occafion  to  make  a  Report  of  the  ceremonies  to  his  conftituent 
Society,  that  we  can  do  no  better  than  prefent  the  Account  much  in  Mr. 
Jones's  own  language. 

The  fervice  was  a  fpecial  one — the  ufual  order  for  Daily  Evening 
Prayer  being  varied  by  the  appointment  of  fpecial  and  appropriate  lef- 
fons ;  the  firft  was  in  thefe  majeftic  words : 


6  Introductory  Note. 


®ljc  iDisbom  of  Solomon. 

Chap,  iii  to  verfe  10. 


UT  the  fouls  of  the  righteous  are  in  the  hand  of  God,  and  there  fhall  no  torment 
touch  them. 


In  the  fight  of  the  unwife  they  feemed  to  die  j  and  their  departure  is  taken  for 
mifery, 

And  their  going  from  us  to  be  utter  deftrucYion  ;  but  they  are  in  peace. 
For  though  they  be  punifhed  in  the  fight  of  men,  yet  is  their  hope  full  of  immor- 
tality. 

And  having  been  a  little  chaftifed,  they  fhall  be  greatly  rewarded  ;  for  God  proved 
them  and  found  them  worthy  for  himfelf. 

As  gold  in  the  furnace  hath  he  tried  them,  and  received  them -as  a  burnt  offering. 

And  in  the  time  of  their  vifitation  they  fhall  fhine,  and  run  to  and  fro  like  fparks 
among  the  ftubble. 

They  fhall  judge  the  nations,  and  have  dominion  over  the  people,  and  their  Lord 
fhall  reign  forever. 

They  that  put  their  truft  in  him  fhall  underftand  the  truth  :  and  fuch  as  be  faith- 
ful in  love  fhall  abide  with  him  :  for  grace  and  mercy  is  to  his  Saints,  and  he  hath 
care  for  -his  elect. 

The  fecond  leflbn  was  in  this  confolatory  paflage  of  the  New  Tefta- 
ment : 

St.  JJaul's  HtQt  Qzpistk  to  ilje  ®I)cssaloniatt0. 

Chap.  iv.  Verfes  13-18. 

BUT  I  would  not  have  you  to  be  ignorant,  brethren,  concerning  them  which  are 
afleep,  that  ye  forrow  not,  even  as  others  which  have  no  hope. 
For  if  we  believe  that  Jefus  died  and  rofe  again,  even  fo  them  alfo  which  fieep  in 
Jefus  will  God  bring  with  him. 

For  this  we  fay  unto  you  by  the  word  of  the  Lord,  that  we  which  are  alive  and 
remain  unto  the  coming  of  the  Lord  fhall  not  prevent  them  which  are  afleep. 

For  the  Lord  himfelf  fhall  defcend  from  heaven  with  a  fhout,  with  the  voice  of  the 
Archangel,  and  with  the  trump  of  God  :  and  the  dead  in  Chrift  fhall  rife  firft  : 

Then  we  which  are  alive  and  remain  fhall  be  caught  up  together  with  them  in  the 
clouds,  to  meet  the  Lord  in  the  air :  and  fo  fhall  we  ever  be  with  the  Lord. 
Wherefore  comfort  one  another  with  thefe  words. 

The  fifth  feleclion  of  Pfalms  had  been  fubftituted  for  that  portion  of 
the  Pfalter  appropriated  to  the  twentieth  evening  of  the  month.  It  was 
as  follows : 


Introductory  Note. 


7 


Selection  iFiftl). 

Pfalm  i.     Beatus  -vir,  qui  non  abiit. 

BLESSED  is  the  man  that  hath  not  walked  in  the  counfel  of  the  ungodly,  nor 
ftood  in  the  way  of  finners,  and  hath  not  fat  in  the  feat  of  the  fcornful. 
But  his  delight  is  in  the  Law  of  the  Lord;  and  in  his  Law  will  he  exercife  himfelf 
day  and  night. 

And  he  fhall  be  like  a  tree  planted  by  the  water-fide,  that  will  bring  forth  his  fruit 
in  due  feafon. 

His  leaf  alfo  fhall  not  wither ;  and  look,  whatfoever  he  doeth,  it  fhall  profper. 

As  for  the  ungodly,  it  is  not  fo  with  them ;  but  they  are  like  the  chaff,  which  the 
wind  fcattereth  away  from  the  face  of  the  earth. 

Therefore  the  ungodly  fhall  not  be  able  to  ftand  in  the  judgment,  neither  the  fin- 
ners in  the  congregation  of  the  righteous. 

But  the  Lord  knoweth  the  way  of  the  righteous ;  and  the  way  of  the  ungodly  fhall 
perifh. 

Pfalm  xv.     Domine,  quh  habitabit? 

LORD,  who  fhall  dwell  in  thy  tabernacle  ?  or  who  fhall  reft  upon  thy  holy  hill  ? 
Even  he  that  leadeth  an  uncorrupt  life,  and  doeth  the  thing  which  is  right,  and 
fpeaketh  the  truth  from  his  heart. 

He  that  hath  ufed  no  deceit  in  his  tongue,  nor  done  evil  to  his  neighbour,  and  hath 
not  flandered  his  neighbour. 

He  that  fetteth  not  by  himfelf,  but  is  lowly  in  his  own  eyes,  and  maketh  much  of 
them  that  fear  the  Lord. 

He  that  fweareth  unto  his  neighbour,  and  difappointeth  him  not,  though  it  were 
to  his  own  hindrance. 

He  that  hath  not  given  his  money  upon  ufury,  nor  taken  reward  againft  the  inno- 
cent. 

Whofo  doeth  thefe  things  fhall  never  fall. 

Pfalm  xci.    Qui  habitat. 
TTTHOSO  dwelleth  under  the  defence  of  the  Moft  High,  fhall  abide  under  the 
*  *     fhadow  of  the  Almighty. 
I  will  fay  unto  the  Lord,  Thou  art  my  hope,  and  my  ftrong  hold  ;  my  God,  in  him 
will  I  truft. 

For  he  fhall  deliver  thee  from  the  fnare  of  the  hunter,  and  from  the  noifome  pefti- 
lence. 

He  fhall  defend  thee  under  his  wings,  and  thou  fhalt  be  fafe  under  his  feathers;  his 
faithfulnefs  and  truth  fhall  be  thy  fhield  and  buckler. 

Thou  fhalt  not  be  afraid  for  any  terror  by  night,  nor  for  the  arrow  that  flieth  by 
day; 

For  the  peftilence  that  walketh  in  darknefs,  nor  for  the  ficknefs  that  deftroyeth  in 
the  noon-day. 


s 


Introductory  Note. 


A  thoufand  fhall  fall  befide  thee,  and  ten  thoufand  at  thy  right  hand  ;  but  it  {hall 
not  come  nigh  thee. 

Yea,  with  thine  eyes  fhalt  thou  behold,  and  fee  the  reward  of  the  ungodly. 

For  thou,  Lord,  art  my  hope  ;  thou  haft  fet  thine  houfe  of  defence  very  high. 

There  fhall  no  evil  happen  unto  thee,  neither  fhall  any  plague  come  nigh  thy 
dwelling. 

For  he  fhall  give  his  angels  charge  over  thee,  to  keep  thee  in  all  thy  ways. 
They  fhall  bear  thee  in  their  hands,  that  thou  hurt  not  thy  foot  againft  a  ftone. 
Thou  fhalt  go  upon  the  lion  and  adder  :  the  young  lion  and  the  dragon  fhalt  thou 
tread  under  thy  feet. 

Becaufe  he  hath  fet  his  love  upon  me,  therefore  will  I  deliver  him ;  I  will  fet  him 
up,  becaufe  he  hath  known  my  Name. 

He  fhall  call  upon  me,  and  I  will  hear  him;  yea,  I  am  with  him  in  trouble;  I 
will  deliver  him,  and  bring  him  to  honour. 

With  long  life  will  I  fatisfy  him,  and  fhow  him  my  falvation. 

The  fervice  was  full  choral  and  was  exquifitely  fung.  Ten  clergymen 
in  their  furplices,  with  no  lefs  than  thirty  chorifters,  robed  alfo  in  white, 
took  part  in  it.  Among  the  clergy  were  the  Reverend  the  Reflor  of 
Trinity  Church,  New  York ;  the  Rev.  Mr.  Lamfon,  Reftor  of  Trinity 
Church  in  the  City  of  Paris,  then  Providentially  prefent ;  the  Rev.  Dr. 
Vinton,  the  Rev.  Dr.  Ogilby,  the  Rev.  Dr.  Wefton  of  St.  John's ;  the 
Rev.  Dr.  Haight  of  St.  Paul's,  with  other  dignitaries  of  Trinity  and 
various  churches,  who  from  the  intereft  of  the  occafion  had  been  honoured 
by  invitations.  After  the  Evening  Service,  thus  fpecially  adapted,  was 
concluded,  the  clergy,  chorifters,  wardens  and  veftry  of  Trinity,  forming 
a  proceffion,  led  the  way  through  the  main  portal  of  the  edifice.  Thefe 
were  followed  by  the  Honourable  Luther  Bradifh,  Prefident  of  the  New 
York  Hiftorical  Society,  and  the  Honourable  George  Bancroft,  the 
Foreign  Secretary,  between  whom  was  the  Orator  of  the  day,  and  next 
in  order  a  Committee  of  the  Hiftorical  Society  of  Pennfylvania  with  an 
efcort  of  members  fpecially  delegated  from  the  Hiftorical  Society  of  New 
York.  The  whole  line  went  forth  in  this  order  to  the  ancient  grave  of 
William  Bradford  in  the  burial  ground  of  Trinity  Church.  Arriving  at 
that  fpot,  the  chorifters  and  accompanying  procefTion  arranged  themfelves 
in  double  lines  around  the  grave  where  the  whole  choir  chanted  antipho- 
nally  the  one  hundred  and  twelfth  Pfalm  of  the  profe  verfion  of  the 
Book  of  Common  Prayer,  in  thefe  words : 


Introductory  Note,  9 


Pfalm  cxii.     Beatus  rvir. 
T)  LESSED  is  the  man  that  feareth  the  Lord ;  he  hath  great  delight  in  his  com- 
mandments. 

His  feed  ftnll  be  mighty  upon  earth;  the  generation  of  the  faithful  mail  be  bleffed. 
Riches  and  plenteoufnefs  mail  be  in  his  house  5  and  his  righteoufnefs  endureth  for 
ever. 

Unto  the  godly  there  arifeth  up  light  in  the  darknefs  ;  he  is  merciful,  loving,  and 
righteous. 

A  good  man  is  merciful,  and  lendeth  5  and  will  guide  his  words  with  difcretion. 
For  he  mall  never  be  moved  :  and  the  righteous  mall  be  had  in  everlafting  re- 
membrance. 

He  will  not  be  afraid  of  any  evil  tidings ;  for  his  heart  ftandeth  faft,  and  believeth 
in  the  Lord. 

His  heart  is  eftablifhed,  and  will  not  fhrink,  until  he  fee  his  defire  upon  his  enemies. 

He  hath  dilperfed  abroad,  and  given  to  the  poor,  and  his  righteoufnefs  remaineth 
for  ever ;  his  horn  mall  be  exalted  with  honor. 

The  ungodly  lhall  fee  it,  and  it  mail  grieve  him  ;  he  mall  gnam  with  his  teeth,  and 
confume  away;  the  delire  of  the  ungodly  mail  perifh. 

The  Reverend  Dr.  Haight  now  made  the  following  addrefs  : 

Christian  Brethren  : — It  is  written  in  the  word  of  God  that  the  righteous  mall 
be  had  in  everlafting  remembrance,  and  that  the  memory  of  the  juft  is  bleffed.  And, 
therefore,  it  is  decent  and  proper  that  we  fhould  preferve  their  memorial,  and  duly 
honor  them,  although  they  have  pafled  away.  Wherefore,  accounting  this  to  be  an 
act  of  religion  pleafing  and  acceptable  to  the  Moft  High,  and  not  without  profit  to  the 
men  of  this  generation,  we  have  caufed  to  be  reftored  this  monumental  ftone,  upon 
the  grave  of  William  Bradford,  whofe  foul  it  pleafed  Almighty  God,  in  His  wife  Pro- 
vidence, on  the  13th  day  of  May,  in  the  year  of  our  Lord  1752,  to  take  out  of  the 
care  of  this  world.  And  we  do  hereby  replace  the  laid  ftone  upon  our  brother's  grave, 
afcribing  the  praife  to  God,  unto  whom  alone  all  praife  is  due,  for  what  good  deeds 
foever  His  fervant  was  enabled  to  perform  here  upon  earth ;  and  efpecially  remember- 
ing, with  thankfulnefs,  that  he  whofe  mortal  body  doth  here  await  the  refurrection, 
was  the  firft  to  iffue  propofals  on  this  continent  to  print  the  Holy  Scriptures  in  Eng- 
lifh,  and  to  accompany  them  with  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer,  which  thing  he  did 
on  the  14th  day  of  January,  1688.  And  now  we  humbly  commend  this  and  all  our 
works  unto  Him,  who  alone  is  able  to  blefs  us  and  fave  us,  befeeching  Him  to  accept 
the  fame,  and  to  grant  unto  us,  and  to  all  thofe  who  are  departed  in  the  true  faith  of 
His  holy  name,  that  we  may  have  our  perfect  confummation  and  blifs  in  His  eternal 
kingdom.  "  I  heard  a  voice  from  Heaven  faying  unto  me  :  Write,  BlelTed  are  the 
"  dead  which  die  in  the  Lord  from  henceforth  :  Yea,  faith  the  Spirit,  that  they  may 
"  reft  from  their  labors  :  And  their  works  do  follow  them." 

B 


io  Introductory  Note. 


The  Addrefs  being  ended,  the  new  Monument — a  handfome  ercftion 
of  Italian  marble,  with  a  ftrong  double  pedeftal — was  reared  upon  the 
fpot  where  Bradford's  body  was  interred  one  hundred  and  eleven  years 
ago.  Appropriate  prayers  (intoned)  and  the  Minor  Benediction  con- 
cluded the  facred  fervice. 

The  Municipal  Authorities  of  New  York  in  honour  of  the  man  by 
whom  fo  great  an  Art  as  Printing  had  been  firft.  introduced  into  their 
State  and  City,  and  who  was  the  earlieft  Printer  to  the  City  Corporation 
itfelf,  had  given  orders  that  the  pafTage  of  all  carriages  of  every  fort  through 
this  part  of  Broadway  mould  be  arrefted  during  thefe  folemn  ceremonies. 
The  ftillnefs  of  that  great  thoroughfare  at  this,  the  bufieft  hour  of  the 
Metropolis ;  with  the  proceffion  of  the  white-robed  miniflers  and  choir 
through  the  ancient  cemetery — at  this  feafon  clothed  in  the  verdure  of 
Spring  and  emblematick  of  the  very  refurrection  of  the  body  in  whofe  fure 
and  certain  hope  all  now  flood  around  the  grave  of  this  venerable  fon  of 
the  Church, — with  the  pealing  ftrains  of  the  many-voiced  fingers,  pro- 
duced an  effect  at  once  charming  and  impreflive.  The  day  was  beautiful 
and  the  air  foft  and  wooing.  The  windows  and  roofs  of  adjacent  houfes 
were  occupied  by  fpeclators  eager  to  catch  a  view  of  a  fcene  fo  unufual 
and  fo  worthy  of  long  remembrance. 

At  8  o'clock  in  the  evening  of  this  fame  day,  the  various  committees 
from  other  places,  and  thofe  perfons  who  had  been  invited  to  a  feat  on  the 
platform,  were  received  by  the  Honourable  Mr.  Bradifh,  the  Prefident, 
and  by  the  other  principal  officers  of  the  New  York  Hiftorical  Society,  at 
the  Ante  Room  of  the  Hall  of  the  Union,  in  the  Cooper  Inftitute,  whence 
they  proceeded  into  the  Hall  itfelf.  This  large  room  was  now  filled  by 
diftinguifhed  perfons  of  New  York — a  very  large  number  being  ladies. 
Upon  the  platform  were  moll  of  the  Literati  of  the  metropolis,  and 
many  perfons  eminent  in  military,  judicial  and  other  office.  The  Prefs 
both  of  New  York  and  of  other  States  was  reprefented ;  and  among  its 
reprefentatives  from  other  places  was  Mr.  Welch  of  the  Univerfity  Prefs 
of  Cambridge,  the  reprefentative,  in  a  direct  line,  of  the  printing  office  of 
Stephen  Daye,  who  firft  eftablifhed  the  prefs  in  the  Eaftern  States.  The 
hearty  zeal,  indeed,  with  which  this  gentleman  had  joined  in  the  Celebra- 
tion of  the  honours  paid  to  Bradford  was  not  the  leaft  agreeable  incident 
of  the  commemoration.  "  Standing  at  Cambridge,"  was  his  language, 
"  at  the  head  of  the  oldeft  printing  houfe  in  America,  eftablimed  by 
i'  Stephen  Daye  in  1639,  and  looking  back  to  him  and  William  Brad- 


Introductory  Note. 


f<  ford,  I  can  but  thank  God  that  they  devoted  their  lives  to  fo  noble  and 
"  chriftianizing  art.  I  gladly  join  in  the  honours  of  this  day."  Mr. 
Peter  Force  of  Wafhington,  not  lefs  known  by  his  exhauftlefs  treafures  of 
hiftorical  works  and  papers,  than  by  the  zeal  with  which  he  places  them  at 
the  fervice  of  his  country,  was  a  fit  reprefentative  of  the  city  which  we  all 
look  to  as  bearing  the  honoured  name  of  Washington,  and  to  be  forever 
the  capital  of  the  United  States.  The  Honorable  Mr.  Pennington,  of 
New  Jerfey,  reprefented  that  State  where  Bradford  is  fuppofed  by  fome 
to  have  firft  eftablifhed  his  prefs )  in  whofe  keeping — within  the  precinfts 
of  St.  Mary's  Epifcopal  Church  at  Burlington — repofe  the  aihes  of  his 
great  grandfon,  the  Honourable  William  Bradford,  Efquire,  Attorney- 
General  of  the  United  States  during  the  Prefidency  of  Wamington  ;  and 
where  the  defendants  of  that  Bradford  we  commemorate,  long  did  honour 
to  his  name.  The  Rector,  Church  Wardens  and  Veftrymen  of  Trinity, 
with  the  Rev.  Dr.  Ogilby  and  others  of  its  dignitaries,  reprefented  the 
great  corporation  of  Trinity  which  had  taken  fuch  honourable  part  in  the 
fervices  at  an  earlier  hour  of  the  day ;  as  did  the  Reverend  Thomas  De 
Witt,  D.  D.,  the  Dutch  Collegiate  Church  of  New  York,  the  firft  reli- 
gious body  in  refpedl  of  date  and  one  of  the  firft  in  influence  and  ufeful- 
nefs  of  any  of  the  churches  of  that  State.  Many  of  the  defcendants  of 
Bradford,  fome  of  them  from  New  England,  fome  from  New  York,  fome 
from  New  Jerfey,  and  others  from  our  own  State,  were  prefent  as  invited 
guefts. 

The  blefTmg  of  Almighty  God  upon  the  fervices  of  the  evening  having 
been  invoked  by  the  Rev.  Dr.  DeWitt,  the  Honorable  Luther  Bradifli, 
Prefident  of  the  Society,  then  introduced  to  the  audience  the  Orator  of 
the  evening,  Mr.  Wallace,  who  proceeded  to  deliver  the  Commemora- 
tive Addrefs.  It  occupied  about  an  hour.  Certain  parts  omitted  in  the 
delivery,  as  alfo  Notes,  will  be  found  in  it  as  now  publifhed. 

When  the  fpeaker  had  refumed  his  feat,  the  Honorable  Gulian  C.  Ver- 
planck,  feconded  by  the  Honourable  George  Bancroft,  moved  the  follow- 
ing Refolutions,  which  were  unanimoufly  adopted  by  the  whole  Hiftorical 
Society  and  Audience. 

Refolved,  That  the  thanks  of  the  New  York  Hiftorical  Society  be  prefented  to 
John  William  Wallace,  Efq.,  of  Philadelphia,  for  the  able,  inftrudlive  and  eloquent 
addrefs  which  he  has  delivered  before  the  Society  in  commemoration  of  William 
Bradford,  who  introduced  the  Art  of  Printing  into  the  Middle  Colonies. 

Refolved,  That  Mr.  Wallace  be  requefted  to  furniih  a  copy  of  his  addrefs  to  be  de- 


12 


Introductory  Note. 


pofited  in  the  Archives  of  the  Society  and  publifhed  under  the  direction  of  the  Execu- 
tive Committee. 

Mr.  Verplanck,  in  offering  the  motion,  and  Mr.  Bancroft  in  feconding 
it,  after  certain  exprcffions  highly  complimentary  to  the  gentleman  by 
whom  the  Addrefs  had  been  delivered,  favoured  the  audience  with  fome  in- 
tcrefting  remarks ;  Mr.  Verplanck  in  the  form  of  reminifcences  of  Printers 
who  had  fucceeded  Bradford  in  later  generations  and  came  down  to  the 
beginning  of  this  century,  with  fome  thoughtful  and  well  reafoned  con- 
jectures as  to  the  influences  which  Bradford  had  had  on  the  formation  of 
the  character  of  John  Peter  Zenger.  Zenger,  he  obferved,  had  been 
educated  in  Bradford's  office.*  From  Bradford  he  had  probably  learned 
thofe  notions  which,  as  an  Editor,  governed  his  conduct  and  were 
fo  ably  and  fuccehTully  enforced  on  his  well  known  Trial  in  1735. 
Zenger's  Trial  had  excited  a  Angular  degree  of  interelt.  in  Great  Britain. 
It  had  been  reprinted  in  England  and  was  incorporated  into  The  State 
Trials.  Mr.  Fox,  it  is  known,  often  referred  to  it ;  and  there  was  no 
great  doubt,  Mr.  Verplanck  fuggefted,  that  he  had  drawn  from  it  in  a 
good  degree  thofe  infpirations  which  gave  fuch  liberality  to  his  own  views 
about  the  prefs.  To  Bradford,  therefore,  the  Law  of  Libel  as  fixed  at  this 
day  in  England  might  directly  and  fpecifically  be  traced.  "  So  true," 
faid  Mr.  Verplanck,  "  was  the  declaration  made  in  one  of  Bradford's 
earlieft  publications  on  this  Continent, 

1  No  man  is  born  unto  himfelf  alone.'  " 

Mr.  Bancroft  paid  an  eloquent  tribute  to  the  miffion  of  the  prefs  generally, 
and  a  well  merited  and  happily  exprefTed  eulogy  upon  the  character  and 
fervices  of  Mr.  Force.  A  Benediction  by  the  Reverend  the  Rector  of 
Trinity  Church,  clofed  the  evening. 

On  Thurfday  at  one  o'clock,  the  Philadelphia  delegation,  with  Mr. 
Wallace  and  certain  ftrangers  of  distinction,  including  the  Hon.  J.  A. 
Poor  of  Portland,  well  known  in  connection  with  moft  interesting  hiftorical 
refearches  as  to  the  State  of  Maine,  were  invited  to  a  dejeuner  at  the  refidence 
of  the  Hon.  George  Folfom  on  Stuyvefant  Square.    A  portion  of  the 

*  Zenger  was  one  of  what  were  called  the  '  Palatine  children.'  He  was  fent  over  here 
with  a  number  of  other  children  by  the  Britifli  Government  after  the  wars  of  the 
Palatinate.  The  original  indenture  of  his  apprenticeship  to  Bradford  dated  26th  of 
October,  17 10,  and  in  which  he  is  defcribed  as  being  thirteen  years  old,  and  the  fon  of 
Hannah  Zenger,  is  preferved,  through  the  care  of  Dr.  E.  B.  O'Callaghan,  in  the  Sec- 
retary of  State's  office  at  Albany. — [See  Indentures  of  Palatine  Children,  1710-11.) 


Introductory  Note.  13 


time  palled  at  Mr.  Folfom's  was  occupied  in  examining,  before  the  de- 
jeuner, with  Mr.  Bradifh  and  other  gentlemen,  the  rare  'and  elegant 
works  which,  with  others  of  a  more  ufeful  kind  merely,  are  contained  in 
Mr.  Folfom's  library,  the  value  and  extent  of  which  are  fo  generally 
known  that  a  more  fpecial  account  of  it  is  unnecefTary. 

On  the  evening  of  that  fame  day  a  Reception  was  given  at  the  Hall  of 
the  Hiftorical  Society.  The  company,  which  included  ladies  in  full  drefs, 
began  to  arrive  at  about  nine  o'clock.  The  whole  of  the  building  was 
opened  to  the  guefts — all  parts  including  the  picture  gallery  and  rooms  being 
lighted.  In  the  veftibule  of  the  main  hall  a  fac-fimile  of  the  original 
tombstone  at  Bradford's  grave,  was  fufpended  on  the  wall ;  the  frame  being 
covered  with  laurel  leaves  and  rofes  entwined.  A  fine  band  of  mufick 
affifted  in  giving  variety  to  the  exercifes,  and  Dancing  occupied  the 
junior  portion  of  the  Company. 

In  the  courfe  of  the  evening  it  was  fuggefted  that  a  few  words  from 
fome  of  the  Philadelphia  Delegation,  as  a  little  variation  even  on  a  feftive 
and  brilliant  fcene,  would  be  acceptable  to  the  company.  The  delega- 
tion was  accordingly  introduced  from  one  of  the  galleries  to  the  audience 
which  was  afTembled  in  various  parts  of  the  hall,  in  a  few  informal  re- 
marks by  Mr.  John  Romeyn  Brodhead,  of  the  New  York  Hiftorical 
Society.  Thefe  were  briefly  refponded  to  by  Mr.  Horatio  Gates  Jones, 
Chairman  of  the  Philadelphia  committee.  During  his  remarks  Mr.  Jones 
introduced  to  the  company,  by  which  he  was  received  with  hearty  plaudits, 
Mr.  Robert  Carr,  of  Philadelphia,  one  of  the  very  oldeft  printers  living; 
whofe  honour  it  was  to  have  corrected  proof-meets  for  the  immortal 
Washington,  and  who  had  alfo  been  in  the  fervice  of  Benjamin  Franklin, 
and  frequently,  as  a  boy,  while  in  the  printing  office  of  Franklin's  grand- 
fon,  Benjamin  Franklin  Bache,  had  converfed  with  that  remarkable  man. 
Mr.  Carr,  who  afterwards  converfed  with  feveral  of  the  company,  gave 
one  or  two  ftriking  anecdotes  of  thefe  eminent  peribns  in  connexion  with 
the  prefs. 

Everything  done  or  fpoken  was  of  an  informal  kind,  fuch  as  was  fug- 
gefted by  the  bland  and  exhilarating  infpiration  of  the  fcene.  Soon  after 
this,  fupper  was  announced,  and  the  whole  company  preceded  by  Gov- 
ernour  Bradifh,  who  had  on  his  arm  Mr  Wallace,  the  Orator  of  the  pre- 
ceding evening,  and  who  were  followed  by  the  Pennfylvania  Delegation 
and  the  chief  officers  of  the  New  York  Society,  were  ufhered  into  the 
fupper- room,  where  they  partook  of  an  elegant  entertainment. 


14  Introductory  Note. 


Mr.  Jones,  in  behalf  of  the  Philadelphia  Delegation,  concludes  his 
Report  in  the  following  terms,  very  gratifying  to  the  Hiftorical  Society  at 
whofe  fuggeftion  the  Celebration  was  had  : 

The  whole  occafion  has  left  the  moft  agreeable  impreffion  on  your  committee,  and 
they  doubt  not  on  the  numerous  ftrangers  who  participated  in  the  various  enjoyments 
referred  to.  As  a  bond  of  kind  feeling  between  the  people  of  New  York  and  thofe  of 
the  places  whofe  reprefentatives  were  prefent,  its  ftrong  and  kindly  influence  can  not 
foon  pafs  away.  Far  more  than  this.  In  thefe  impreffive  honours  rendered  to  a  long 
departed  benefactor  of  his  race  and  country,  and  in  this  effort  to  reftore  to  publick  re- 
collection and  intereft  his  name  and  fervices,  in  the  great  chief  city  of  our  land,  by  fo 
ancient,  opulent  and  truly  refpectable  a  religious  body  as  Trinity  Church,  and  by  a 
Hiftorical  Society,  which  for  wealth,  numbers  and  difcriminating  judgment  in  the 
beftowal  of  publick  honours,  is  fo  well  known,  Virtue  itfelf  has  received  new  rewards 
and  ftronger  incentives,  and  the  moral  inftindts  of  a  whole  people  have  been  quicken- 
ed, refrefhed  and  invigorated.  Such  a  Celebration,  fuggefted,  carried  on,  and  accom- 
plifhed  at  a  crifis,  when  other  lands  might  fuppofe  that  we  had  no  thoughts  but  for  the 
calamities  of  civil  war,  proves  at  once  how  exhauftlefs  are  the  fpirits  and  energy  of 
this  people;  how  attendant  upon  all  other  worthy  ambitions,  are  their  moral  and  in- 
tellectual afpirations  and  how  deep  and  abiding  their  reverence  for  the  benefactors  in 
every  age,  of  their  race  and  nation. 

The  Hiftorical  Society  of  New  York  in  giving  Mr.  Wallace's  Ad- 
drefs  to  the  publick  cannot  deny  themlelves  the  pleafure  of  reproducing 
the  Refolutions  of  their  refpecled  filter  Society,  the  Hiftorical  Society  of 
Pennfylvania,  as  palled  on  the  conclufion  of  the  Celebration  and  the  re- 
turn of  their  Delegation  to  Philadelphia.  They  receive  them  as  a  high 
evidence  of  the  juftnefs  and  propriety  of  the  Celebration  recently  had 
under  their  aufpices  ;  and  of  the  hearty  good  will  in  which  every  where 
in  our  country  honours  are  paid  to  departed  worth  and  greatnels. 

At  a  meeting  of  the  Hiftorical  Society  of  Pennfylvania,  held  in  their  Rooms  June 
8th,  1863,  the  Honourable  Oswald  Thomson,  in  the  Chair.  Horatio  Gates  Jones, 
Efquire,  having  read  a  Report  from  the  Delegation  recently  appointed  by  this  Society 
to  affift  at  the  Celebration  of  the  Two  Hundredth  Birth-day  of  William  Bradford  : 

On  motion  of  William  Duane,  Efq.,  feconded  by  Col.  James  Ross  Snowden,  the 
following  refolutions  with  the  report  were  unanimoufly  adopted  : 

Resolved,  That  the  thanks  of  the  Hiftorical  Society  of  Pennfylvania  are  hereby 
offered  to  the  New  York  Hiftorical  Society,  for  the  fplendid  Commemoration  on  the 
20th  May,  1863,  of  the  Two  Hundredth  Birth-day  of  William  Bradford,  by  whom 
the  Art  of  Printing  was  firft  introduced  into  the  Middle  Colonies  of  Britifh  America, 
and  in  whofe  name  and  memory  the  Commonwealth  of  Pennfylvania  will  ever  feel 
deep  intereft  as  having  firft  landed  on  her  fhores  and  having  here  firft  eftablilhed  the 


Introductory  Note. 


>5 


Art  of  Printing  in  the  Middle  Colonies  of  Britifh  America  j  though  afterwards  for 
fixty  years  a  refident  of  New  York,  and  having  practiced  there  for  half  a  century  his 
art. 

Resolved,  That  in  the  feleclion  by  the  New  York  Hiftorical  Society  of  a  citizen  of 
Pennfylvania  as  the  perfon  to  deliver  the  Commemorative  Addrefs  on  this  great  Hif- 
torical Occafion,  this  Society  recognizes  an  acl  of  graceful  juftice  towards  this  Com- 
monwealth, and  one  by  which  the  Hiftorical  Society  of  Pennfylvania  is  flattered  and 
gratified. 

Resolved,  That  the  reception  given  to  the  delegation  from  this  body  at  the  Brad- 
ford Commemoration  is  fuch  as  calls  for  and  receives  our  acknowledgements,  and 
fuch  as  will  leave  a  grateful  impreflion  upon  this  Society. 

Resolved,  That  the  thanks  of  this  Society  are  hereby  given  to  the  Corporate  Au- 
thorities of  Trinity  Church,  New  York,  for  the  reverent  care  had  by  them  of  the  an- 
cient grave  of  William  Bradford,  and  for  the  beautiful  and  affecting  fervices  with 
which,  on  the  Two  Hundredth  Anniverfary  of  his  birth,  the  faid  corporation  re- 
placed upon  that  facred  fpot  a  monument  defigned  to  record  for  future  generations  the 
refting-place  of  the  firft  Printer  of  the  Middle  Colonies  of  America. 

Resolved,  That  a  copy  of  this  Report  and  Refolutions  be  tranfmitted  to  the  Hif- 
torical Society  of  New  York,  and  to  the  Corporation  of  Trinity  Church. 


COMMEMORATIVE  ADDRESS. 


AM  bound,  firft  of  all,  Mr.  Prefi- 
dent,  and  you,  Ladies  and  Gentle- 
men, as  a  citizen  of  Pennfylvania, 
to  exprefs  my  fenfe  of  the  honour 
you  do  that  Commonwealth,  by  an 
invitation  which,  difregarding  the 
far  higher  abilities  of  your  own 
fcholars,  brings  hither  on  this  occafion  one  of  her  fons 
to  addrefs  you.  Notwithftanding  that  Bradford  lived 
and  laboured  for  fixty  years  in  this  city  ;  that  from  the 
Province  of  New  York  he  received  the  mo  ft  liberal  and 
moft  conftant  patronage  which  he  received  any  where 
on  this  continent;  that  here,  in  credit  and  wealth,  at 
great  old  age,  he  died ;  and  that  within  the  morning 
fhadow  of  your  own  Trinity  his  afties  repofe  ;  you  have 
defired  by  the  invitation  which  brings  my  humble  felf 
before  you  to  record  a  hiftorick  facl ;  the  facl,  to  wit, 
that  on  the  foil  of  Pennfylvania,  he  firft  fet  his  feet 
when  landing  on  thefe  mores ;  that  there  was  firft 
kindled  that  light  of  letters  which  has  fince  illuminated 
C 


1 8  Commemorative  Addrefs. 

the  vaft  region  which  we  now  call  The  Middle  States  ; 
and  that  fo,  by  ancient  title,  a  fitter  Commonwealth 
partakes  with  you,  in  the  inheritance  of  that  fame, 
deftined,  by  a  celebration  all  your  own,  henceforth, 
to  be  an  honoured  one. 

Pennfylvanians,  I  am  fure, among  the  many  and  ftrong 
and  deep-laid  ligaments  which  bind  them — and  ever  in 
Union  fhall  bind  them — to  this  Imperial  State  and 
City,  will  not  regard  as  flight  ones,  if  my  fenfe  of  it 
be  right,  acts,  like  this,  of  high  and  courteous  juftice. 

Two  hundred  years  have  paffed  fince  William  Brad- 
ford was  born  :  One  hundred  and  ten  fince  he  died  ; 
having  then  long  withdrawn  from  every  fort  of  occu- 
pation which  would  leave  an  earthly  record.  Not  one 
of  his  defcendants  that  I  have  heard  of,  nor  any  of  the 
communities  in  which  he  lived — till  now  when  centu- 
ries raife  their  heights  to  fhut  from  view  the  paft,  and 
you  firft  fet  the  honourable  example — have  thought  it 
of  mtereft  to  inveftigate  a  career  which  perhaps  they 
owed  it  as  much  to  their  own  honour  and  the  hiftory  of 
civilization  as  to  him,  to  fave  from  entire  oblivion. 
His  life  was  paffed  in  two  hemifpheres,  and  in  both 
hemifpheres  in  different  places.  His  refidence  in 
Pennfylvania — not  a  continuous  refidence  at  all — takes 
us  well  back  into  the  reign  of  the  Stuart  kings,  when 
the  records  of  our  State  are  few.  When  he  came  to  this 
your  city,  New  York  had  not  extended  further  north- 
ward than  to  where  Wall  street  now  is ;  along  which 
line,  the  line  of  its  outer  defences,  the  city  was  enclofed 
by  palifades.  Four  thoufand  was  the  number  of  your 
inhabitants,  and  of  thefe  one  half,  perhaps  a  larger 
number,  were  Hollanders.    Here  too,  we  are  in  early 


Commemorative  Addrefs.  19 

times  !  Bradford  has  left  us  but  little  from  his  own 
pen,  while  the  charming  Autobiography  of  Franklin, 
on  the  other  hand,  has  attracted  to  that  remarkable 
perfon, 

"  Focus  at  once  of  all  the  rays  of  Fame," 

moft  of  the  flight  intereft  which  the  early  prefs  of  our 
country  has  infpired  any  where  or  with  any  one.* 
From  remote,  and  fcattered,  and  fcanty  materials,  there- 
fore, muft  be  gathered  any  Iketch  of  the  man  we  here 
commemorate ;  the  Caxton  of  our  Middle  States. 
You  will  pardon  me,  I  am  fure,  if  the  details  are 
meagre,  the  characterization  flight. 

The  exact  date  of  Bradford's  birth  is  fettled  by  a 
record  which  he  himfelf  has  left  us  in  a  Angular  but 
appropriate  production  of  his  own  art.  It  would  feem, 
indeed,  as  if  the  old  man,  having  attained  more  than 
the  term  allotted  to  our  race,  and  looking  at  that 
moment  (the  clofing  hours  of  1738)  over  an  eventful 
but  yet  fortunate  career  of  feventy-flx  years,  had  felt 
that  his  connexion  with  the  early  eftablifhment  of  let- 
ters in  a  new  world,  had  given  to  any  important  event 
relating  to  his  perfonal  hiftory,  an  intereft  which 
the  'innumerable  feries  of  years'  and  the  'flight  of 
time '  would  but  increafe  : 

"  Ufque  ego  poftera 

Crefcam  laude  recens  " 

feems  to  have  been  the  prophetick  conviction  of  his 
heart,  when  in  "  'The  American  Almanack  for  the  Tear 
of  Chriftian  Account,  1739/'  printed  by  himfelf,  he 
entered  and  publifhed  to  the  world  as  one  among  its 

*  See  Appendix,  Note  i . 


20  Commemorative  Addrefs. 

important  events  the  following  for  the  month  of  May: 
"The  Printer  Born  the  20th,  1663"* 

His  parents  were  William  and  Anne  Bradford,  of 
Leicefterfhire,  England.  The  family  is  reputed  on 
fair  evidence  to  have  been  an  old  one  ;  and  Bradford 
feems  to  have  valued  his  privileges  in  this  way ;  for 
though  forbidden  by  his  art  from  "  writing  himfelf 
Armigero"  he  ftill  fealed  very  carefully  with  Arms.  I 
hold  in  my  hand  one  of  his  letters  dated  cc  New  York, 
September  11,  1709,"  and  vifibly  thus  imprerTed. 
[Letter  exhibited  fhewing  the  Arms  of  Bradford.^] 

He  was  taught  the  art,  which  commends  his  name 
to  our  intereft,  in  the  office  of  Andrew  Sowle,  an  ex- 
tenfive  printer  and  publifher  in  London  during  the 
commonwealth  and  reftoration. 

We  cannot  doubt  at  all  that  Bradford  was  a  very 
well  behaved  and  moft  diligent  apprentice  ;  for  he  foon 
fell  in  love,  and,  as  was  quite  according  to  the  pro- 
prieties of  the  cafe,  with  his  matter's  daughter,  Mifs 
Elizabeth  Sowle ;  whom  in  good  time  he  married. 
He  loved  her  none  the  lefs,  I  fuppofe,  for  being  what 
in  England  is  called  cca  co-heirefs,"  nor  becaufe,  as  fuch, 
her  anceftral  Arms  became  of  right  quartered  on  his 
own  fhield  in  fubfequent  defcents. 

*  See  Appendix,  Note  2. 

"j"  The  Arms  on  this  Letter,  for  the  ability  to  fhew  which  I  was  in- 
debted to  Horatio  Gates  Jones,  Efquire,  of  Philadelphia,  to  whofe  rich 
collection  it  belongs,  were  apparently  that  branch  of  the  family  of  Brad- 
ford belonging  to  Torkfoirc  ;  St.  Jr.  on  a  felTe  fable,  three  flags'  heads 
erafed  or.  The  impreffion  on  the  letter  was  not  now  traceable  in  all  its 
differences,  but  the  diftinguiftiing  marks  of  the  Arms  of  Bradford — the 
three  flags  or  goats'  heads — were  ftill  quite  plain. 


Commemorative  Addrefs.  21 

The  influences  which  furrounded  his  training  in  the 
office  where  he  was,  were  of  the  pureft  kind.  Mr. 
Sowle,  whofe  name  indicates  a  Saxon  origin,  and  of 
whom  there  is  a  printed  Biography  in  the  Religious 
Literature  of  his  own  day,*  was  an  excellent  man,  of 
ftable  fortune,  intimately  acquainted  with  the  leaders  of 
the  Society  of  Friends,  and  affectionately  efteemed  in 
particular  by  Mr.  Penn,  who  vifited  him  in  his  laft  ill— 
nefs,  and  from  whofe  pious  confolations  he  derived  fome 
of  thofe  comforts  which  made  even  the  hour  of  death, 
a  happy  and  triumphant  one.    The  general  refpect  in 
which  he  was  held,  as  well  as  Mr.  Penn's  confidence 
in  him  in  particular,  is  manifefted  by  his  having  been 
felected  to  be  a  witnefs  to  one  of  the  charters  of  Penn- 
fylvania.f    It  was  no  doubt  owing  to  the  affectionate 
relations  between  the  father-in-law  of  Bradford  and 
Mr.  Penn,  that  Bradford  himfelf  became  acquainted, 
while  a  mere  boy,  with  the  great  Proprietary ;  and 
that  printing  was  finally  introduced  into  thefe  Middle 
States  under  the  aufpices  of  a  youth  who  as  yet  had 
only  completed  his  226.  year. 

Mr.  Penn  was  defirous  to  give  to  his  profpective 
colony  the  benefit  of  the  Printing  Prefs,  and  being 
now  about  to  fail  on  his  firft  voyage  for  Pennfylvania, 
Bradford  accompanied  him.t    They  embarked  at  Deal 

*  Piety  Promoted  in  Brief  Memorials  of  the  Virtuous  Lives,  Services 
and  Dying  Sayings  of  Some  People  called  Quakers;  by  JohnTomkins 
and  others,  London,  1789,  vol  ii. 

"j"  See  Fac  Simile  of  Seal  and  Signatures  in  John  Jay  Smith's  Autograph 
Curiofities. 

j  Dixon's  Life  of  Penn,  p.  263.  London,  1851  ;  Armstrong's  Addrefs 
before  the  Hiftorical  Society  of  Pennfylvania,  1852,  pp.  22,  23. 


22  Commemorative  Addrefs. 

on  the  ift  September,  1682.  It  was  a  memorable 
voyage.  They  were  fcarcely  well  upon  the  main  be- 
fore contagious  peftilence — the  horrid  fcourge  of  fmall 
pox — broke  out  on  board  their  little  fhip.  Of  one 
hundred  perfons  who  embarked,  thirty,  including  the 
mafter,  died  at  fea,  and  were  committed  to  the  deep. 
After  one  month  and  twenty-feven  days  of  fuffering 
and  terrour,  the  bleffed  %ht  of  land  rewarded  their  en- 
durance. Bradford  and  his  furviving  comrades  landed 
on  the  28th  November,  1682,  at  a  fmall  place  called 
New  Caftle,  below  Philadelphia ;  that  city  not  having 
as  yet  been  laid  out,  nor  a  houfe  there  built.  The 
arrival  of  The  Welcome,  which  was  the  name  of  the 
fhip,  has  been  celebrated  by  commemorations  in  Phi- 
ladelphia, and  her  lift  of  PafTengers  is  with  us  con- 
fidered  a  Battle  Abbey  Roll.* 

Bradford,  at  this  time,  was  not  twenty  years  of  age. 
I  have  faid  that  he  married  the  daughter  of  Mr.  Sowle. 
Whether  the  event  took  place,  as  Tradition  in  Penn- 
fylvania  delivers,  prior  to  his  coming  here  in  1682,  or 
as  fome  have  fuggefted,  afterwards,  and  on  his  return 
to  England,  whither  he  went  prior  to  his  coming  here 
finally  in  1685,  no  record  enables  me  to  fay.  But  this, 
it  feems,  is  certain,  that  whether  the  lady  was  his  wife 
or  his  betrothed,  only,  fhe  remained  in  her  father's 
comfortable  home  in  London.  Mr.  Sowle,  it  is  likely, 
interpofed  to  "put  off  the  marriage,"  as  young  ladies 
fay.  He  probably  thought  that  "having  it  now" 
might  lead  to  too  romantick  an  enterprize,  and  fo  gave 
the  young  typo  leave  to  examine  for  himfelf,  under 

*  Sec  Armftrong's  Addrefs  before  the  Hiitorical  Society  of  Pennfyl- 
vania,  8th  November,  1851. 


Commemorative  Addrefs.  23 

the  aufpices  of  Mr.  Perm,  the  attractions  of  the  New 
World  before  he  mould  take  an  inexperienced  young 
girl  to  mare  any  want  of  them  with  him.  Bradford,  I 
fufpect — I  don't  know  how  it  was  with  Mifs  Eliza- 
beth— though  fhe  too,  perhaps,  felt  that  cc  Papa  was 
making  a  very  long  engagement,  and  wondered  what 
people  would  fay" — Bradford,  I  fufpect,  thought" that 
good  old  Mr.  Sowle  was  very  hard  of  heart  and  made 
but  flight  allowance  for  a  damfel  and  her  lover  in  all 
that  anxious,  blifsful  ftate  defcribed  by  naughty  Thomas 
Moore : 

"  When  two  mutual  hearts  are  fighing 
For  that  knot  there's  no  UN-tieing." 

The  venerated  friend  of  William  Penn,  it  is  likely, 
read  the  New  Teftament  oftener  than  he  did  the  plays 
of  Shakefpeare ;  and  in  his  eftimation,  no  doubt, 
'Phoebe'  and  c  Prifcilla,'  of  whom  the  world  knows 
little  but  that  Paul  thought  them  worthy  of  his  com- 
mendation and  his  greeting,  were  better  models  of  the 
heroine  than  either  Juliet  or  Defdemona.  And  fo,  in 
truth,  they  were. 

How  long  Bradford  now  remained  in  America,  or 
where  he  pafled  his  time,  is  uncertain.  I  fuppofe  this 
vifit  to  have  been  one  fomewhat  of  exploration  ;  and 
that  he  may  have  traveled  pretty  much  over  the  whole 
region  which  he  feems,  on  his  return  in  1685,  to  have 
entered  on  as  the  field  of  his  operations. 

In  the  fpring  of  1685,  being  then,  it  is  certain,  in 
London,  he  made  preparations  to  eftablifh  himfelf 
finally  on  this  Weftern  Continent.  He  has  already 
received  the  countenance  of  William  Penn,  the  Chief 


24  Commemorative  Addrefs. 

of  State  ;  and  he  now  fortifies  himfelf  with  letters  of 
recommendation  and  teftimony  from  George  Fox,  the 
renowned  head  of  the  Church  ; — the  refpe&able  fociety 
of  Friends,  in  Pennfylvania.  The  letter  of  Pox  is 
dated  c  London,  6  month,  1685/  and  is  addreffed  to 
many  eminent  Quakers  by  name,  in  Rhode  Iflarid, 
Eaft  Jerfey,  Weft  Jerfey,  Pennfylvania,  and  Maryland. 
Thus  it  reads  :* 

"  Dear  Friends  : 

"  This  is  to  let  you  know  that  a  fober  young  man,  whofe  name  is 
i(  William  Bradford,  comes  to  Pennfylvania,  to  fet  up  the  trade  of  print- 
"  ing  Friends'  books.  And  let  Friends  know  of  it  in  Virginia,  Carolina, 
"  Lo?2g  Iftand,"  [New  York  is  not  mentioned  more  nearly  than  this:  I 
fuppofe  becaufe  there  were  no  Quakers  here,]  "  and  Friends  in  Plymouth 
"  Patent  and  .Bofton.  And  what  books  you  want  he  may  fupply  you 
"  with ;  or  Anfwers  againft  Apoftates  or  wicked  Profeflbrs  books.  He 
"  may  furnifli  you  with  our  Anfwers;  for  he  intends  to  keep  a  corre- 
"  fpondence  with  Friends  that  are  Stationers  or  Printers  here  in  England  ; 
"  and  fo  whatever  books  come  out  and  are  printed  by  Friends  here,  they 
"  may  fend  fome  of  each  fort  over  every  year.  So  he  fettling  to  print  at 
"  Philadelphia,  may  ferve  all  thofe  countries,  namely  :  Pennfylvania, 
"  Eaft  and  Weft  Jerfey,  Long  Ifland,  Bofton,  Winthrop's  Country,  Ply- 
"  mouth  Patent,  Pijbaban"  [Where  exactly  Pijlaban  is  I  don't  know. 
Poffibly  fome  of  you  ladies  can  tell  us.  I  will  not  venture  to  fuggeft  that 
by  this  outlandifh  title  Fox  referred  to  New  York  itfelf,]  "  Maryland, 
*<  Virginia,  and  Carolina.  And  fo  you  may  do  well  to  encourage  him. 
"  He  is  a  civil  young  man  and  convinced  of  truth."  [By  this  laft  ex- 
prelhon  I  prefume  that  George  Fox  meant  that  Bradford  was  "  convinced 
of  truth  "  as  he,  George,  taught  it ;  in  other  words  that  he  was  a  Quaker, 
and  confidered  that  he,  to  wit,  George  Fox  aforefaid,  was  the  legitimate 
fucceflbr  of  St.  Peter  upon  earth  ;  and  as  fuch  poflelTed  of  the  keys.] 

"  He  was  apprentice  with  our  friend  Andrew  Sowle  ;  fince  married 
"  his  daughter.    And  fo,"  [the  fequence  is  not  abfolutely  clear]  "  fo  you 

*The  original  is  in  the  poireffion  of  Mr.  F.  M.  Etting  of  Philadelphia.  (Hijlorical 
Magazine  and  Notes  and  Queries,  vol.  iv,  New  York,  i860,  p.  52.) 


Commemorative  Addrefs.  25 

"  may  make  an  order  that  he  mail  not  permit  any  Friends'  books  among 
"  you  but  what  Friends  in  the  Miniftry  do  there  approve  of ;  as  they  do 
"  here  in  England.  And  confider  to  fettle  what  number  each  meet- 
(e  ing  may  take  off.  And  I  perceive  he  brings  many  Primers  and  new 
"  books.  And  what  books  you  want  you  may  fend  to  him  for  :  if  he  have 
"  them  not  he  can  fend  to  England  for  them."  [You  fee,  therefore,  that 
Bradford,  to  his  other  accomplishments,  added  that  of  an  importing  mer- 
chant ;  and  that  in  the  fpecial  department  of  elegant  Englifh  works  he  was 
only  about  one  hundred  and  feventy-five  years  ahead  of  your  great  mo- 
dern bibliopoles  the  Meflrs.  Appleton.]  "  And  fo  I  defire  Thomas  Lloyd 
"  and  the  reft  of  the  Magi  Urates  above  named  to  give  him  what  encour- 
iC  agement  and  alTiftance  you  can. 

"  So  with  my  love  to  you  all  in  the  Holy  Seed,  Chrift  Jefus,  who  reigns 
"  over  all,  in  whom  you  have  all  Life  and  Peace  with  God,  Amen. 

"  George  Fox." 

Strange  !  is  it  not,  that  this  letter  written  near  two 
hundred  years  ago,  by  George  Fox  the  founder  of  the 
Quakers,  to  introduce  "a  fober  young  man,  William 
Bradford,"  cca  civil  young  man  convinced  of  Truth," 
to  all  the  drab-coated  divines  of  America, — the 
ftraighteft  of  this  eccentrick  feci: — mould  now  introduce 
him  as  fully — the  beft  introduction  he  has — to  this 
diftinguifheH  audience,  compofed  of  the  fafhion,  the 
beauty,  the  rank  and  fcholarfhip  of  this  great  metro-  * 
polis  ;  the  fplendid  city  of  New  York  !  a  place  which 
at  London  in  6th  Month,  1685,  was  not  important 
enough  to  be  named  among  the  places  of  America — 
though  Pijbaban  was — but  which  is  now  the  chief  city 
of  a  hemifphere;  deftined,  under  a  reeftablifhed  Union, 
to  rank  with  the  firft  city  of  the  world. 

With  his  domeftick  relations  permanently  and  hap- 
pily eftablifhed  by  the  prefence  of  his  wife,  and  with 
youth  and  health  to  give  ardour  to  hope,  Bradford 
D  " 


26  Commemorative  Addrefs 

engaged  in  the  labours  of  his  Prefs  ;*  though  it  feems 
to  have  been  lefs  devoted  to  the  "printing  of  Friends 
books,"  than  in  the  virion  of  George  Fox  was  pre- 
defined. Fox's  letter  mows  that  as  early  as  1685,  our 
enterprifing  youth  contemplated  a  field  of  operations, 
coextenfive  with  our 'Middle  Colonies;  and  even 
going  beyond  them  both  North  and  South.  He  early 
accomplifhed  this  plan  ;  and  between  1686  and  1692 
he  was  printing  for  Pennfylvania,  New  York,  New 
Jerfey,  Connecticut  and  Rhode  Ifland,  as  in  1702  he 
was  for  Maryland  alfo.  ccAn  Union  of  States"  was 
plainly  in  his  mind  from  the  time  he  firft  began  his 
operations.*]* 

The  earlier!:  iflue  of  Bradford's  prefs,  known  to  me, 
is  an  Almanack  for  the  year  1686,  produced  of  courfe 
in  1685.  One  copy  alone  feems  to  have  furvived  to 
this  day,  and  that  one  has  wandered  far  from  the  place 
of  its  origin.  New  England  boafts  its  pofleffion.J 
It  was  called  cc  Kalendarium  Pennfylvanienfe  or  America  s 
Mejfenger,  an  Almanack."  A  certain  Samuel  Atkyns 
edited  it.  Among  the  remarkable  events«which  were 
fet  down  oppofite  to  particular  days,  there  was  fet 
down  oppofite  to  that  one  on  which  Mr.  Penn  arTumed 
the  control  of  things  in  Pennfylvania,  the  following 
entry  :  c<  The  beginning  of  Government  here  by  the 
Lord  Penn."  This  title  of  courtefy  given  to  their 
Governour  was  ofFenfive  to  the  Provincial  Magiftracy. 

*  See  Appendix,  Note  3. 

f  See  Appendix,  Note  4. 

J  Formerly  in  the  poffeffion  of  Judge  Sewell;  afterwards,  and  in  1853, 
in  that  of  Mr.  Frederick  Kidder.  {New  England  Hijiorical  and  Genea- 
logical Regifter,  vm,  20.) 


Commemorative  Addrefs.  27 

Atkyns  was  fummoned  before  the  Council  and  ordered 
to  blot  out  the  words  cc  Lord  Penn,"  and  Bradford 
was  warned  cc  not  to  print  any  thing  but  what  mall 
have  lycence  from  ye  council."* 

In  1686  he  produced  "Burnyeafs  Epiftle"  Burn- 
yeat  was  a  great  man,  if  not  in  the  wider  fphere  of  his 
day  and  generation,  at  leaft  in  the  £  little  fenate'  of  his 
own  feci.  He  even  now — though  never  heard  of,  I 
prefume,  in  this  accomplifhed  audience — holds  a  high 
place  in  the  Hagiology  of  Friends.  We  are  told  that 
'  be  received  the  truth''  in  1663  in  Cumberland;  and 
died  in  Ireland  in  1690,  cc  after  he  had  flood  great 
"  troubles,  florins  and  trials  there  ;" — '  troubles,  ftorms 
and  trials '  great  enough  no  doubt ;  but  not  greater,  I 
mould  fay,  than  as  a  c  Friend  in  the  Miniftry,'  he 
ought  reafonably  to  have  expecled  when  he  fet  off  on 
the  bufmefs  of  miflions  and  to  upfet  the  truth  of  Rome 
among  the  emotional  fons  of  the  Vatican  in  fo  faithful 
a  land  as  Ireland.  George  Fox  has  embalmed  his 
memory  for  a  certain  clafs  in  an  obituary  notice  yet 
preferved.  <c  He  travelled  and  preached  the  Gofpel," 
fays  Fox,  ccin  Ireland,  Scotland,  Barbadoes,  Virginia, 
"  Maryland,  New  Jerfey,"  [nothing  is  faid  about  Pijba- 
ban,~\  cc  and  up  and  down  New  England,  and  had 
<c  many  difputes  with  Priefts  and  Profejfors  that  oppqfed 
"  the  truth  an  expreffion  by  which  I  prefume  George 
includes  alike  the  Clergy  of  the  Church  of  England 
and  the  Minifters  of  the  Puritan  Body.  "  But  the 
"  Lord  gave  him  dominion  over  all,"  fays  Fox  ;  "  and 
<c  to  flop  the  mouths  of  gainfayers,"  [c  the  Priefts  and 
ProfefTors,'  aforefaid,  meaning];  "and  he  turned 
*  Minutes  of  Provincial  Council,  i,  115. 


28  Commemorative  Addrefs. 

<c  many  to  the  Lord  and  was  a  Peace- Maker.  He  tra- 
"  veiled  with  me/  continues  George,  cc  from  Maryland, 
<c  through  the  wildernefs,  and  through  many  rivers  and 
iC  defperate  bogs,  where  they  faid  never  Englifhman  nor 
"  horfe  had  travelled  before ;  where  we  laid  out  at  nights, 
"and  fometimes  in  Indian  Houfes  ;  and  many  times 
"were  very  hard  put  to  it  for  provifions ;"  a  fore 
privation,  no  doubt,  for  George  and  Burnyeat ;  as  it 
might  well  enough  have  been  for  men  'convinced  of 
c  truth '  in  worfe  or  better  forms.  u  But  the  Lord  by 
"his  Eternal  Arm  did  fupport  us;  and  carry  us 
cc  through  all  dangers  !  BlefTed  be  his  name  for  ever- 
"  more  !" 

After  fuch  a  companionfhip  and  fuch  an  experience 
Burnyeat  felt  infpired  to  write  £  Epiftles ' — to  all 
Friends  fcattered  throughout  America — twenty-three 
Epiftles  in  all — far  ahead  of  St.  Paul — and  this  was 
one  of  them.  The  title  is,  "An  Epiftle  from  John 
cc  Burnyeat  to  Friends  in  Pennjylvania,  to  be  by  them  dif- 
<c  perfed  to  the.  Neighbouring  Provinces,  which  for  Con- 
"  venience  and  Defpatch  was  thought  good  to  be  Printed, 
"  and  Jo  ordered  by  the  Quarterly  Meeting  of  Philadel- 
" phia  the  7th  of  ^th  Month  1686."  The  imprint, 
which  is  at  the  end,  is,  cc  Printed  and  fold  by  William 
"  Bradford,  near  Philadelphia,  1686."  The  Epiftle 
is  but  a  little  affair  in  point  of  fize — four  pages  of 
fmall  4to.:i:  The  Society  of  Friends,  from  whom 
Bradford  received  a  good  fhare  of  that  fmall  patronage 
which  in  thofe  days  he  got  from  any  fource,  took  one 
hundred  copies,  giving  him  fifteen  millings  for  the  fame. 


*  A  copy  is  in  the  Friends'  Library  at  Philadelphia. 


Commemorative  Addrefs.  29 

Of  An  Almanack  which  was  iflued  in  1687,  more 
than  one  copy  is  extant.  It  begins  with  the  nth 
month — January.  Daniel  Leeds,  c  Student  in  Agri- 
culture/ feems  to  have  been  the  perfon  by  whom  the 
Aftronomical  Calculations  were  made.  Thefe  are 
given  fpecially  for  Burlington,  and  only  generally  for 
Philadelphia;  Burlington  having  been  in  1686,  I  pre- 
fume,  the  more  important  city  of  the  two.  The  type 
is  cleanly  cut  and  in  good  condition.  The  font  in- 
cluded all  the  aftronomical  figns.  The  frequent  alter- 
nations from  upper  and  lower  cafe,  Roman  and  Italick,* 
in  the  fame  line,  have  an  effect  not  now  regarded  as 
pleating ;  but  fuch  was  then  the  mode ;  and  in  the 
periodicity  of  fafhion  it  has  lately  been  revived  along 
with  other  archaifms  of  printing,  much  to  the  fatisfac- 
tion  of  Typographical  Antiquaries,  in  fome  of  thofe 
beautiful  books  iffued  by  Mr.  Munfell,  of  Albany,  in 
your  own  State ;  a  gentleman  to  whom  I  cannot  refer 
without  admiration  of  the  tafte  and  zeal  which  he  dis- 
plays in  thofe  reproductions  of  our  early  prefs,  which 
take  from  England  part  of  the  typographical  glories 
which  fhe  once  claimed  as  the  exclufive  honour  of  Wil- 
liam Pickering.f  The  prefs  work  of  the  Almanack  is 
well  done.    There  is,  however,  fome  want  of  good 

*  The  impreflion,  on  looking  at  the  Italicks  and  Roman  mixed  up  as 
they  are  in  fome  of  Bradford's  earlier  ifTues,  undoubtedly  is  that  the  fonts 
were  fhort,  and  that  he  had  '  eked  '  out  one  *  fort '  by  another.  They 
may  have  been  fo  in  1687.  The  Temple  of  Wifdom,  however,  and 
other  books  printed  in  1688,  fhew  that  his  cafes  were  then  fufficiently 
filled  and  there  is  no  '  ekeing '  vifible,  fo  far  as  I  remember,  in  Burnyeat's 
Epi/i/e,  printed  in  1686. 

|See  Appendix,  Note  5. 


30  Commemorative  Addrefs. 

j  unification.  Letters  and  lines  are  out  of  place,  as  if 
the  font  had  been  fhort  of  quads,  and  there  are  other 
irregularities  occasioned  obvioufly  by  a  neceflity  of 
piecing  the  rules  which  run  acrofs  the  page.  All  thefe 
defects,  however,  are  frequently  feen  even  now  in  large 
fheets  of  what  is  known  as  'rule  and  figure  work 
and  in  thofe  days  when  rule  was  dear  and  the  bodies 
of  the  fame  fonts  were  caft  with  much  lefs  regularity 
than  now,  were  inevitable  in  a  fingle-page-kalendar  of 
this  fize.  As  yet,  Binny,  and  Ronaldfon,  and  Bruce 
and  McKeilar, — thefe  laft  two,  in  honoured  prefence, 
I  am  proud  to  fay  this  night  beflde  me — George  Bruce, 
your  upright  fellow-citizen,  long  retired  from  active 
labour,  now  in  venerable  age,  but  with  mental  vigor 
unimpaired, — and  Thomas  McKellar,  my  refpected 
townfman,  in  the  full  activity  of  ufeful  middle  life — 
both — may  I  not  alk  the  indulgence  to  add  ? — repre- 
fentatives  with  Archibald  Binny  and  James  Ronald- 
fon of  honeft  old  Scotland — thefe,  the  artifts  of  the 
printer's  calling — had  not  as  yet  arifen  to  make  the 
Letter-Founders  of  America  admired  among  their 
brethren  of  every  land,  and  moft  of  all  in  the  very 
land  of  lkill,  beautiful  France  herfelf.* 

In  its  literary  execution  this  early  iflue  of  Bradfords' 
prefs,  was  fuited  to  a  primitive  fettlement.  Maxims 
of  moral  and  religious  duty  are  united  with  fhort 
"Rules  of  Hufbandry,"  and  "  The  times  of  Courts 
<c  and  Fairs  in  Philadelphia  and  Burlington. "  The 
times  which  the  Almanack  gives  of  Courts  and  Fairs 
in  Philadelphia  and  Burlington,  have  long  ceafed  to 

*  See  Appendix,  Note  6. 


Commemorative  Addrefs.  3 1 

intereft  any  one.  The  maxims  of  moral  and  religious 
duty  are  as  frefh  at  this  hour  as  they  were  two  hundred 
years  ago ;  and  fome  of  them  in  Monarchies  and 
Democratick  Republicks  alike  acquire  a  greater  value 
every  day.    Thus  they  proceed  : 

"  No  man  is  born  unto  himfelf  alone ; 
"  Who  lives  unto  himfelf,  he  lives  to  none. 

"The  blaze  of  honour,  Fortune's  fweet  excefs 
"  Do  undeferve  the  name  of  Happinefs. 

"  Place  Jkews  the  man,  and  he  whom  honour  mends, 
"  He  to  a  worthy  generous  fpirit  tends." 

Confidering  that  the  only  Englifh  population  in  or 
about  Philadelphia  in  1687,  was  that  excellent  one  of 
Friends,  it  may  be  noted  as  a  curious  circumftance 
connected  with  this  Almanack,  and  one  which — in 
connexion  with  Bradford's  proportion  in  the  follow- 
ing year,  to  print  the  Bible  accompanied  by  the  Book  of 
Common  Prayer — tends  to  raife  a  queftion  whether 
either  the  Divinity  of  his  great  Spiritual  Patron, 
George  Fox,  or  refpect  for  that  £  lycence  from  ye  coun- 
cil/ without  which  he  had  been  ordered  "not  to  print 
<c  any  thing,''  had  taken  very  deep  root  in  our  young 
friend's  mind — that  the  Kalendar  in  queftion,  exhibits 
as  "  Remarkable  Days"  not  the  days  of  c  Monthly/ 
c  Quarterly/  or  c  Yearly  Meeting,'  nor  even  that  on 
which  George  Fox  himfelf  gladdened  this  vain  world 
by  his  birth,  but  the  varied  fafts  and  feftivals  of  the 
Church  Catholick  ;  then  obferved  nowhere  over  the 
broad  expanfe  of  thefe  colonies;  though  now  celebrated 
by  furpliced  ministers,  "with  pealing  organ  and  by 
paufing  choir,"  in  your  own  Trinity,  Broadway,  as  in 


32  Com?nemorative  Addrefs. 

the  time-honoured  Cathedrals  and  Colleges  of  our 
mother-land,  or  in  San  Pietro  Vaticano  in  Eternal 
Rome  herfelf.  All  thefe,  beginning  with  the  Circum- 
cifion,  and  ending  with  the  Slaughter  of  the  Innocents, 
and  including  the  Converfion  of  St.  Paul ;  the  Annun- 
ciation and  Purification  of  the  Virgin  ;  the  Afcenfion 
and  Pentecoft ;  The  Decollation  of  the  Baptift ;  the 
Feaft  of  Michael  the  Arch-Angel,  and  of  every  Apoftle 
in  his  turn,  are  fet  forth  with  prominence  ;  and  except 
a  mention  of  the  Vernal  Equinox,  and  of  certain  days 
which  mark  the  progrefs  of  the  feafons,  no  other  day 
in  the  annual  round,  is  noted  in  this  Almanack,  as 
remarkable  at  all. 

How  much  edification  indeed,  this  Kalendar  of  the 
Ecclefiaftical  Year,  afforded  to  the  refpeclable  fociety 
of  Friends — then,  as  I  have  faid,  the  only  religious  body 
of  Mr.  Penn's  new  country,  and  who,  I  mould  fup- 
pofe,  would  have  feen  in  it  nothing  but  1  Man's  Feafts 
in  God's  Church ' — there  is  no  record,  that  I  know  of, 
to  inform  us.  Mr.  Penn  had,  himfelf,  in  facl,  been 
fo  often  and  fo  gravely  charged,  with  being  not  only  a 
Papift,  but  a  Prieft,  and  that  of  the  order  of  Jefuits, 
that  it  is  poffible  enough  his  colonifts — Friends 
though  they  were — had  become  fomewhat  infufceptible 
to  alarm  on  the  fubjecl:  of  High  Church  obfervances. 

Bradford  produced  an  Almanack,  alfo,  for  1688  ; 
the  memorable  year  of  the  Englifh  Revolution.  But 
the  editor  of  it,  Daniel  Leeds,  our  aforefaid  cc  Student 
in  Agriculture,"  had  not  acquired  among  his  ftudies 
of  the  field,  as  much  deference  for  the  religion  of  the 
State  as  was  politick  and  becoming.  Forgetting  Lord 
Bacon's  counfel  that  there  "  be  certain  things  which  are 


Commemorative  Addrefs.  33 

cc  privileged  from  jeft,"  as  cc  Religion,"  he  put  upon 
his  almanack  fomething  which  referred  in  a  light  way 
to  the  ceremonies  of  cc  Friends'  Meeting;"  fome 
<cunfavoury  matter,"  as  in  the  vernacular  of  their  day 
and  difcipline  it  is  called.  Their  fufceptibilities  were 
touched  ;  and  the  ifiue,  through  their  influence,  called 
in.  The  Society  of  Friends,  by  a  refolution  of  their 
body,  compenfated  Bradford  for  the  lofs  he  had  fuf- 
tained.  Not  a  copy  of  this  Almanack,  that  I  know 
of,  has  defcended  to  this  day :  nor  one  of  c  Edward 
Eakin's  writing,'  which  appears  to  have  iffued  in  the 
fame  year  under  the  authority  of  Friends'  Meeting  in 
the  place  of  that  of  Leeds,  which  this  body  had  fup- 
preffed. 

The  fame  revolutionary  year  of  1688  is  memorable 
in  Philadelphia  for  a  difpute  as  to  the  place  of  holding 
the  Fair ;  a  great  matter  in  thofe  days,  when  Fairs 
were  held  in  our  city  as  in  old  times  and  towns  of 
England.  The  Governour  and  Council  had  fixed  the 
place  of  holding  it  at  the  c  Center;'  our  Centre  Square, 
of  courfe.  This  plainly  was  thought  by  fome  of  the 
ladies  too  far  removed  from  the  fashionable  quarters 
of  Water  ftreet,  for  them  to  vifit  it.  Their  huhbands 
and  admirers — for  even  under  the  regime  of  William 
Penn,  ladies,  I  fuppofe,  had  admirers — the  Quaker 
Faith  itfelf  allowing  c  Yea,'  £  Yea,'  for  the  benefit  of 
gentlemen,  on  fome  occafions,  as  well  as  enjoining 
'  Nay,'  £  Nay,'  for  the  protection  of  ladies,  on  others — 
their  hufbands  and  admirers,  I  fay,  drew  up  and  figned 
a  remonftrance  ;  and  we  chronicle  among  the  iflues  of 
Bradford's  prefs  for  1688,  "A  paper  touching  ye  keeping 
E 


34  Commemorative  Addrefs. 

£C  of  the  Fair  at  the  Centre"  The  Provincial  Minutes* 
tell  the  reft  of  the  ftory  ;  not  one  creditable  to  the  chi- 
valry of  the  times.    Thus  they  read  : 

"  Councill  Roome  in  Philadelphia  ye  15th  of  ye  3d  month  1688. 

"  A  Summons  was  fent  Directed  to  Thomas  Clyford  McfTenger  for  the 
"  Summonfing  ye  Subfcribers  of  a  Contemptuous  Printing  paper  touching 
"  ye  Keeping  of  ye  fair  at  ye  Center ;  where  it  was  Ordered  by  ye  Govr 
"  and  Council  to  be  kept. 

"  Councill  Roome  in  Philadelphia  ye  16th  of  ye  3d  month  1688. 

"  The  Returne  of  ye  Wan4  granted  yefterday  for  ye  Summonfmg  ye 
"  Subfcribers  of  ye  Contemptuous  printed  advertifem*  againft  keeping  ye 
"  fayre  at  ye  Centre  was  made  by  the  Meflenger ;  and  he  attefted  that 
"  they  were  all  and  Each  of  them  Summonfed,  Several  of  ye  Subfcribers 
"  Excufing  themfelves. 

"  The  Depty  Govr  and  Councill  after  Reproveing  them,  did  pardon  all 
"  thofe  who  Jubjcribed  to  what  was  indorsed  on  the  back  of  one  of  the  printer 
"papers." 

Any  'printer  paper'  which  remonftrated  againft  the 
wife  doings  of  the  Governour  and  Council,  was  in 
thofe  days  contemptuous  ;  and  was  invariably  followed 
by  a  c  Summonfing '  before  their  Body. 

The  earlieft  volume  which  we  have  from  the  prefs 
of  Bradford,  is  the  'Temple  of  Wifdom ;  a  work 
which  includes  cc  Effays  and  Religious  Meditations  of 
Francis  Bacon."  I  know  of  but  one  copy  extant,  and 
that  one  I  exhibit  to  you.  [The  fpeaker  here  exhib- 
ited a  Duodecimo  exquifltely  bound  in  blue  Turkey 
morocco  with  gilt  edges.]  It  belongs  to  Mr.  William 
Menzies  of  your  own  city,  in  whofe  beautiful  library, 
bound  with  an  elegance  worthy  of  their  rarity,  is  con- 
tained the  fineft  collection  of  Bradfords  any  where 
exifting. 


*  Vol.  1,  pp.  179-80. 


Com??iemorative  Addrefs.  35 

The  figure  of  this  enterprifing  youth  as  he  laboured 
at  his  prefs  in  thefe  early  days,  deferves,  I  think,  to 
make  a  feature  on  the  canvafs  which  fhall  perpetuate 
the  hiftory  of  American  civilization.  In  all  other 
countries  the  typographick  art  has  been  cultivated  be- 
fide  the  fupporting  walls  of  palaces  ;  within  the  pro- 
tecting clofe  of  religious  houfes,  or  under  the  fructify- 
ing air  of  patronage  and  wealth.  Princes  have  been 
its  nurfing  fathers,  and  queens  its  nurfing  mothers  ; 
and  nobles  and  bifhops  and  fcholars  have  watched  its 
early  progrefs.  Weftminfter — the  venerated  abbey  in 
which  for  ages,  England  has  crowned  her  fovereigns — 
and  which  me  confecrates  as  the  abode  of  her  moft 
honoured  dead,  counts  even  as  one  of  her  diftinctions, 
that  Caxton  reared  his  prefs  within  her  precincts.* 
France,  celebrating  the  munificence  of  the  nth  Louis, 
difplays  in  all  the  richnefs  of  her  art,  and  in  the  coft- 
lieft  products  of  her  Sevres  Ikill  and  tafte,  upon  the 
windows  of  her  Louvre,  the  monarch  who  fat  befide 
her  prefs  and  foftered  with  his  care  its  flickering  light.*]- 

Where  rank  and  wealth  and  learning  have  not  been 
its  cheerful  fupporters,  the  prefs  has  languished,  or 
has  had  to  wait  for  happier  times.  Even  in  Mafla- 
chufetts  no  book  nor  paper  was  iflued  for  eighteen  years 
after  the  fettlement  of  that  Province.  Virginia  and 
Maryland  forbade  the  art  entirely.  William  Bradford, 
eftablifhing  his  prefs  in  thefe  Middle  States,  prefents 
an  exception  to  all  ordinary  hiflory.    He  has  crofted 

*  See  Appendix,  Note  7. 

"j"  This  fplendid  glafs  ufed  to  be  in  one  of  the  large  windows  of  the 
Louvre.  I  faw  it  there  in  1850,  and  perhaps  in  1857  ;  but  miffed  it  in 
i860.    I  know  not  now  where  it  is  placed. 


36  Commemorative  Addrefs, 

an  ocean  and  is  a  thoufand  leagues  away  from  the 
genial  influences  of  education  and  tafle.    He  has  no 
£  afliflance  of  the  learned '  nor  any  £  patronage  of  the 
£  great.'    No  £  academick  bowers  '  lead  the  way  to  his 
humble  roof,  nor  bring  fcholars  to  watch  his  daily  pro- 
grefs.    No  flrains  pealing  through  long-drawn  aifles 
and  fwelling  the  note  of  praife,  refrefhed  his  fpirits  as 
they  often  mufl  have  Caxton's  as  he  grew  weary  with 
his  lengthened  toil.    The  arches  above  him  are  of  the 
interlacing  forefls ;  and  amidfl  the  primaeval  oaks,  the 
curious  and  wondering  Indian  watches  him  in  the  foli- 
tary  practice  of  his  "myflery."    He  is  printing  the 
wifdom  of  Francis  Bacon — his  Essays — c  Of  Studies' 
— £  Of  Counfel ' — £  Of  Goodneffe  and  GoodnefTe  of 
*  Nature' — £  Of  Judicature' — c  Of  Honour  and  Repu- 
tation'— cOf  Ceremonies  and  Refpects';  His  Sacred 
Meditations — £  Of  the  Moderation  of  Cares' — £  Of 
£  Earthly  Hopes' — £Of  the  Church  and  the  Scriptures,' 
for  the  rough  trader  whofe  foul  is  abforbed  in  fchemes 
of  gain,  or  for  the  poorer  colonifl  anxious  only  to 
build  himfelf  a  fhelter  from  the  florin,  or  to  provide 
for  the  day  that  is  paffing  over  his  head.    His  patrons 
are  the  ignorant  Finlander  and  Swede  and  Hollander, 
whom  Penn  is  bringing  to  his  colony.    To  ufe  his 
own  fimple  but  expreffive  words,*  he  has  £  laid  out 
£  the  greater!:  part  of  that  fmall  flock  he  had  on  materi- 
£  als  for  printing  (which  are  very  chargeable)  and  com- 
£  ing  here  found  little  encouragement ;  which  made  him 
£  think  of  going  back.'    Unaided  he  rears  his  humble 
prefs.    With  his  own  hand  he  fets  the  type.    He  im- 


*  See  infra,  p.  38. 


Commemorative  Addrefs.  37 

pofes  himfelf  the  form  ;  corre&s  by  his  own  care  the 
pages;  locks  them  in  the  chafe;  adjufts  the  regifter ; 
and  then  applying  the  full  vigour  of  his  arm  and  turn- 
ing back  the  crank,  lifts  up  the  printed  meet.  Behold  ! 
[Exhibiting  to  the  whole  audience  the  open  volume 
of  Lord  Bacon's  EfTays]  The  Genius  of  Lord  Ve- 
rulam,  mines  upon  a  new  world  !  At  fuch  a  moment 
how  joyous  muh1  have  been  the  emotions  of  fuch  a 
man  !  Meafuring  them  by  the  means  of  their  accom- 
plifhment,  in  what  other  land  can  the  Art  conferva- 
tive  of  all  the  Arts,  boaft  fo  noble  a  refult  ?* 

This  iffue  of  Bradford's  prefs  appeared  in  1688  ; 
feventeen  years  before  Benjamin  Franklin  was  born; 
thirty-nine  years  before  he  eftablifhed  any  where  the 
Printing  Prefs.  The  name  of  Franklin  is  widely  re- 
vered. But  the  Printer's  calling  received  no  addition 
to  its  dignity  when  the  candle-end-faving  genius  of 
Poor  Richard  ufurped  the  honours  which  in  an  earlier 
day,  had  been  paid  to  the  author  of  the  Inftauration. 

The  meets  of  this  work  were  ftill  going  through  the 
prefs  when  Bradford  engaged  himfelf  on  a  project  of 
vaftly  higher  aim  and  magnitude ;  far  in  advance  of 
his  time,  and  which  ought  to  commend  his  memory 
to  enduring  honour.  This  was  in  1688,  and  was  a  no 
lefs  enterprize  than  that  of  printing  in  folio,  with 
marginal  notes,  and  as  would  appear,  with  the  book  of 
Common  Prayer  included,  the  entire  volume  of  the 
Holy  Scriptures.  His  letter  to  the  then  only  reli- 
gious body  in  Philadelphia,  making  known  his  defign, 
has  recently  with  his  printed  Propofals  been  repro- 
duced in  fac  fimile.    I  mow  them  to  you  here  [Fac 

*See  Appendix,  Note  8. 


3  8  Com?ne??iorative  Addrefs. 

Similes  mown].  Bradford  was  at  this  time  24  years 
old.    Thus  they  read  : 

"  To  the  HALF  YEAR'S  MEETING  of  Friends  held  at  Burlington, 
"the  3d  of  the  ill  month  168}: 
"  Dear  Friends: 

"I  have  thought  meet  to  lay  before  you  of  this  meeting  fomething  of 
"  my  intentions ;  defiring  your  concurrence  and  alftftance  therein  fo  far  as 
"you  think  it  of  fervice.  I  have  propofed  to  fome  Friends  and  laid  it 
"  before  our  meeting  at  Philadelphia,  concerning  the  printing  of  a  large 
"  Bible  in  folio ;  by  way  of  fubfcriptions,  becaufe  it  will  be  a  very  great 
"  charge  infomuch  that  I  cannot  accomplifh  to  do  it  myfelf  without  affift- 
"  ance. 

"  Therefore  I  propofe  that  they  who  will  forward  fo  good  a  work  as 
"  this  is  conceived  to  be,  by  fubfcribing  and  paying  down  (in  one  or  two 
"  months  time)  the  fum  of  twenty  millings,  mail  have  one  Bible  printed 
"  and  bound  as  mentioned  in  the  paper  of  propofals  annexed  :  fo  foon  as 
"  they  are  fo  printed  and  bound,  which  I  hope  will  be  in  little  more  than 
"  one  year  and  a  half  after  fubfcriptions  paid. 

"  Friends  here  at  Philadelphia  and  hereaway  are  willing  to  forward  and 
"  encourage  the  faid  work.  Our  Monthly  Meeting  very  well  approved  of 
"  the  faid  work  and  propofals,  and  ordered  to  recommend  it  to  the  Quar- 
terly Meeting;  and  thefe  intend  to  order  two  or  three  Friends  to  look 
"  after  the  fubfcription  money  to  fee  that  it  be  employed  to  the  ufe  intend- 
"  ed  for ;  and  that  the  work  of  printing  the  faid  Bible  be  carried  on  with 
et  what  expedition  may  be. 

"  If  you  the  Friends  of  the  Half  Year's  Meeting  and  our  Quarterly 
"  Meeting  here  at  Philadelphia  do  concur,  and  approve  of  the  faid  pro- 
"  pofals,  and  are  willing  to  encourage  the  fame,  which  I  doubt  not,  then  I 
"  propose  to  you  whether  or  no  you  think  it  convenient  to  invite  or  order 
"fome  Friend  or  Friends  to  write  in  behalf  of  the  faid  Meeting  or 
"  Meetings  to  the  feveral  refpe&ive  Monthly  and  Quarterly  Meetings  in 
"  Pennfylvania  and  Weft  Jerfey  acquainting  them  with  what  is  propofed 
"  and  vour  fenfe  of  the  fame  ;  which  I  fuppofe  would  be  a  great  induce- 
"  ment  to  them  to  encourage  it. 

"  And  whereas  it  has  been  fpoken  up  and  down  concerning  my  going  to 
"  England  to  live.  To  which  I  fay  that  it  was  my  intentions  fo  to  have 
"  done  by  reafon  that  I  laid  out  the  greateft  part  of  that  fmall  flock  I  had 


Commemorative  Addrefs. 


39 


u  in  materials  for  printing  (which  are  very  chargeable)  and  coming  he,re 
"  found  little  encouragement  made  me  think  of  going  back.  But  per- 
"  ceiving  that  Friends  and  people  were  generally  concerned  thereat,  has 
"  caufed  me  to  decline  my  faid  intentions  at  prefent.  And  as  I  find  en- 
"  couragement  in  this  particular  above  mentioned  or  any  thing  elfe  fo  that 
"  therein  I  may  but  be  ferviceable  to  truth  and  the  friends  thereof  and 
"  withal  get  a  livelyhood  for  myfelf  and  family,  (hall  be  content  and  ftay. 

"This  from  him  who  defires  to  ferve  you  in  what  he  may.  And  fo 
"  remain  your  friend  as  in  truth  abiding. 

"WILLIAM  BRADFORD. 

"Philadelphia  the  firft  of  firft  month  1681." 

A  noble  enterprize  with  which  to  begin  the  firft  of 
firft  month  in  any  year  whatever ! 

The  propofals  are  too  long  for  me  to  read.  He 
announces  that  the  Bible  fhall  be  a  large  'Houfe  Bible/ 
or  as  we  now  call  it,  a  'Family  Bible;'  that  it  fhall 
be  printed  on  a  fair  character ;  a  form  of  expreflion 
which  reveals  a  printer's  pen  and  point  of  view;  that 
it  (hall  be  on  good  paper  and  well  bound  ;  fhall  con- 
tain the  Apocrypha,  and  all  to  have  c  ufeful  marginal 
notes.'  I  know  not  whether  Bradford  meant  to  write 
the  notes  as  well  as  to  print  them.  He  was  as  com- 
petent perhaps  as  fome  of  George  Fox's  C£  Friends  in 
<c  the  Miniftry,"  already  fpoken  of.  But  as  I  have  not 
difcovered  any  occafion  wherein  he  endeavoured  to 
exercife  himfelf  in  matters  too  high  for  laymen  to  at- 
tempt, I  prefume  he  had  no  defign  of  trying  his  gifts 
as  a  facred  exegefift.*    The  fimplicity  of  one  item  of 

*  In  promifmg  that  his  edition  of  the  Bible  mould  have  '  ufeful  mar- 
'  ginal  notes,'  I  fuppofe  that  Bradford  meant  only  that  it  mould  have  a 
feleflion  from  the  marginal  references  ufually  given.  To  have  given  all 
would  have  immenfely  increafed  his  labour,  and  perhaps  have  interfered 
with  the  rights  of  the  King's  Patentees  in  England.    Governour  Black- 


4°  Commemorative  Addrefs. 

the  Propofals — the  4th — as  originally  drawn,  is  curi- 
ous ;  indicating  alike  Bradford's  own  zeal  in  difTemi- 
nating  the  Scriptures,  and  fhewing  alfo  the  primitive 
ftate  of  commerce  then  exifting  among  us.  Thus  it 
runs  : 

"  The  pay  mall  be  half  filver  money,  and  half  country  produce  at 
"  money  price.  But  they  who  really  have  not  money  and  yet  are  w  illing 
"to  encourage  the  faid  work,  goods  at  money  price  Jhall fatisfie" 

I  know  not  if  any  of  your  great  Bible  publifhers  are 
prefent  here  this  evening;  your  Harpers,  your  Ap- 
pletons,  &c.  They  are  liberal  men  I  know;  ready  to 
accommodate  cc  The  Trade"  in  everyway.  But  what 
would  they  think  of  propofing  to  publifh  the  Bible 
now  on  thefe  terms  ?  I  don't  fpeak  of  the  cc  filver 
money "  part  of  it.  To  that,  poffibly, — the  filver 
money  I  mean, — if  preffed  upon  them,  they  might 
have  no  objection.  But  the  other  part.  £C  They  who 
<c  really  have  not  money,  goods  at  money  price — " 
Some  of  Mr.  Stewart's  point  laces — I  fuppofe — or  a 
few  camel's  hair  fhawls — fome  fcarlet  ones — a  few 
white  and  a  few  black  ones — three  or  four  green  ones — 
fome  long  fhawls  and  fome  fquare — but  all  with  em- 
broidery three  feet  deep  ;  or  a  diamond  necklace  and 
ear-rings  from  Tiffany's  or  Ball  and  Black's — "will 
"fatisfie."  I  fuppofe  it  would' — their  wives  ;  and  who, 
gentlemen,  I  want  to  know  in  any  thing  that  men  do 
in  this  world  have  half  fo  good  a  right  to  be  fatisfied  ; 
who,  over  its  wide  furface,  reward  us  half  fo  well  for 
every  act  of  felf-denial — they  are  not  many,  perhaps, 

well  tells  him  on  another  occafion  (See  infra)  "Sir,  we  are  within  the 
"  King's  dominions,  and  the  laws  of  England  are  in  force  here  ....  and 
"  they  are  againft  printing,"  &c. 


Commemorative  Addrefs.  41 

with  Tome  of  us, — which  we  ever  practice  in  their  be- 
half? 

This  great  and  good  enterprife  of  Bradford's  is  in- 
terefting  not  only  as  an  important  feature  of  the  hiftory 
of  printing  in  thefe  Middle  Colonies,  but  as  giving  to 
them  the  distinction  only  of  late  difcovered  to  belong 
to  us  of  having  firft  propofed  to  print  the  Holy 
Scriptures  in  Englifh  on  this  continent.  You  are 
aware  that  until  quite  lately  it  was  univerfally  fuppofed 
that  Cotton  Mather,  the  great  Independent  minifter  of 
Bofton,  was  the  firft  perfon  to  propofe  this  vaft  labour. 
He  did  it  in  1695  ;  eight  years  after  Bradford.  It  is 
now  certain,  therefore,  that  we  are  entirely  ahead  of 
New  England  in  thefe  regions,  and  that  to  William 
Bradford,  the  firft  printer  of  Pennfylvania,  New  York 
and  New  Jerfey,  the  honour  really  belongs. 

The  fact  is,  ladies  and  gentlemen — it  is  a  melancholy 
thing  to  fay — but  I  muft  fay  the  truth — I  am  here  to- 
night, I  fuppofe,  for  that  exact  purpofe — the  fact  isr 
that  we  people  of  the  Middle  States  are  fo  exceflively 
modeft — like  that  good  man,  Iago,  we  fo  "lack  ini- 
quity to  do  ourfelves  fervice" — that  it  is  not  at  all 
furprifing  that  our  fprightly  fifter  ftates  of  New  Eng- 
land really  thought  they  were  quite  alone  in  this  glory.. 
The  fault  is  ours,  not  theirs  ;  and  the  moral  is  that 
we  muft  not  be  fo  very  modeft  for  the  time  to  come  ; 
at  leaft  not  fo  in  doing  honour  to  our  departed  wor- 
thies. 

For  one  hundred  and  fifty  years  the  knowledge  of 
Bradford's  propofition  was- loft,  not  only  to  the  world 
of  Sacred  Letters  but  to  the  very  city  where  it  was  firft 
F 


42  Commemorative  Addrejs. 

made  known.  The  hiftory  of  its  revival  in  this  day- 
is  curious.  Not  long  ago  a  quiet  inveftigator  into  the 
ancient  literature  of  our  colony,  was  purfuing  his  re- 
fearches  in  a  library  known  with  us  as  The  Friends 
Library,  a  fweet  and  tranquil  fpot  in  Philadelphia, 
over-looking  the  venerable  grounds  of  c  Arch  Street 
Meeting;'  wherein  repofe  in  hallowed  fllence  whole 
generations  of  thofe  excellent  men  and  women  who 
adorned  by  their  pure  fpirits  and  beneficent  lives  the 
primitive  Society  of  Friends  in  Pennfylvania  ;  men 
and  women  unhonoured,  indeed,  upon  the  rolls  of 
earthly  fame,  but  who,  I  doubt  not,  in  that  day  which 
mail  try  men's  work  of  what  fort  it  is,  will  rejoice  in 
the  better  glory  of  thofe  whofe  abiding  record  is  on 
high.  Handling  a  venerable  Quarto,  our  friend,  with 
varied  inftincls,  was  ftruck  by  its  peculiar  binding, 
obvioufly  early  and  indigenous.  Looking  at  it  he  ob- 
ferved  that  the  inner  lining-paper,  as  binders  call 
it?  was  white  only  on  one  fide  ;  printed  letters  mewing 
through  the  paper  ;  he  looked  at  it  more  clofely,  and 
with  reflection.  "  Here,"  faid  he,  "may  be  fome  re- 
C£  cord  of  our  colonial  hiftory  ;  fome  illuftration  even 
"  of  our  early  printing."  Wetting  the  leaf  with  care 
he  withdrew  it  from  the  boards.    Lo  his  reward  ! 

"  Proposals  for  the  Printing  of  a  large  Bible 

BY 

WILLIAM  BRADFORD."* 

The  name  of  this  modeft  individual  is  Nathan  Kite, 
a  member  of  that  fame  ancient  but  now  faft  waning 
Society  of  Friends ;   long  a  refpedted  bookfeller  of 

*  See  Appendix,  Note  9,  where  the  Propofals  are  given  at  large. 


Commemorative  Addrefs.  43 

Philadelphia,  to-day  in  creditable  retirement  from  bufi- 
nefs  ;  and  who  keeps  ever  frefh  for  its  duties  a  life  of 
unostentatious  devotion  to  the  beft  offices  of  man, — 
the  comfort  of  the  fick,  the  relief  of  the  poor,  encour- 
agement and  affiftance  to  thofe  who  have  loft  their 
peace,  their  innocence  and  their  earthly  hopes — by  the 
enjoyment  of  occafional  purfuits  into  the  field — remu- 
nerative only  to  devotion  fuch  as  his — of  the  early 
literature  of  Friends.  I  hope  I  may  be  pardoned, 
for  an  expreftion  of  refpect  to  worth  fo  modeft,  fo 
genuine  as  Mr.  Kite's.* 

Bradford  as  you  are  moft  of  you  aware,  was  a  veftry- 
man  of  Trinity  Church,  and  it  muft  be  an  interesting 
fact  to  the  Reverend  dignitaries  and  various  officers  of 
that  corporation  who  gratify  us  by  their  prefence  in 
affembled  dignity  this  evening — :as  indeed  it  muft  be 
an  interefting  fact  alfo  to  the  whole  religious  Body  of 
which  that  church  is  fo  worthy  and  fo  admired  an 
exponent, — that  in  the  firft  propofals  ever  made  in 
America  to  print  the  Holy  Bible,  it  was  offered  to 
accompany  it  with  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer. 
From  the  very  origin  of  either,  therefore,  in  America, 
they  went  hand  in  hand  ;  while  with  a  toleration  which 
gives  a  higher  grace  to  Bradford's  efforts,  it  was  free 
to  all  of  other  Faiths  to  have  the  Word  of  God  alone. 
The  propofals  are  to  print  the  Holy  Bible;  but  thofe, 

*  Everywhere  almoft  in  the  preparation  of  the  early  part  of  this  Addrefs, 
I  have  been  indebted  to  this  aimable  perfon.  His  information  has  been 
at  once  curious  and  accurate.  Mr.  Kite's  written  contributions  to  our 
fubjeft — originally  given,  T  think,  in  the  16th  and  17th  volumes  of  The 
Friend — were  printed  at  Manchefter,  England,  A.  D.  1 844,  under  the 
title  of  Refearches  among  the  early  Printers  and  Publijhers  of  Friends'1 
Books. 


44  Commemorative  Addrefs. 

it  is  faid,  "  who  are  minded  to  have  the  Common 
"  Prayer  (hall  have  the  whole  bound  up  for  22  fh.il— 
"  lings;"  20  millings  being  the  price  of  the  Bible 
without  the  Common  Prayer.* 

The  character  of  Bradford  was  marked  by  thofe  ad- 
venturous difpofitions  which  have  diftinguilhed  Eng- 
lifh  colonifts  whether  on  the  Eaftern  or  the  Weftern 
continent.  At  a  very  early  date  after  his  firft  arrival 
in  America — as  early  as  1690 — he  eftablifhed  as  joint 
proprietors  with  fome  Hollanders  named  Rittenhoufe, 
near  Philadelphia,  on  a  branch  of  the  beautiful  and 
romantick  ftream  called  the  Wiflahickon,  the  firft  paper- 
mill  ever  eftablifhed  in  America.  From  this  mill  came 
excellent  paper,  as  I  can  teftify,  to  write  or  print  on. 
What  I  read  you  is  written  upon  it.  I  hold  you  up  a 
fheet  of  it.  [Exhibiting  the  MS.  of  the  Addrefs.] 
The  paper-maker's  work  has  lafted  much  longer  I 
fear — one  hundred  and  feventy  years — than  the  Ad- 
drefs that  is  written  on  it  ever  will !  The  water-mark, 
as  I  fuppofe,  is  a  violet,  indicative  of  the  fpontaneity, 
perhaps,  which  that  pretty  little  flower  grows  on  the 
banks  of  the  WifTahickon.  An  acute  and  very  learned 
acquaintance  of  mine,  Mr.  Horatio  Gates  Jones, 
who  is  feated  near  me  on  the  platform,  gives  it,  indeed, 
as  his  opinion  that  this  trefoil  flower  is  not  a  violet 
as  I  affirm  it  before  you  to  be,  but  the  common  three- 

*  The  propofition  of  Bradford  as  given  in  his  printed  propofals  to 
put  the  Apocrypha  in  his  Bible  and  accompany  the  whole  with  the  Book 
of  Common  Prayer,  indicates,  I  think,  relations  with  Virginia,  the  Caro- 
linas,  &c.  In  fome  of  the  Southern  Colonies  the  Church  of  England 
was  the  eftablifhed  religion.  In  1688  it  had  no  exigence  at  all  in  the 
North,  fo  far  as  I  know. 


Commemorative  Addrefs.  45 

kafed  clover.  We  have  debated  this  queftion  ardently 
and  long.  The  matter  is  important.  I  fee  no  way 
to  decide  the  folemn  point  but  to  let  Mr.  Jones  give 
his  clover  to  the  men  ;  allowing  me  to  offer  my  violets, 
as  I  humbly  do,  to  you,  ladies.  Underneath  the 
flower — be  it  violet,  as  I  moft  powerfully  and  potently 
believe — or  clover-leaf — as  my  friend,  too  honeftly 
would  fet  down — you  obferve  the  word  c  Pennfilvania 
a  land  where,  notwithstanding  our  contentions,  all 
made  to  put  before  you  the  very  truth,  my  opponent 
and  I  contrive  to  live  in  harmony,  and  where  both 
trefoil  clover  and  violets  grow  in  rich  and  exquifite 
perfection. 

Of  fuch  importance  was  this  paper-mill  deemed  to 
the  interefts  of  the  country  around  it,  that  having 
been  warned  away  by  a  flood  in  1700,  Mr.  Penn,  who 
was  on  his  laft  vifit  to  Pennfylvania,  addrefled  a  letter 
to  the  inhabitants  urging  them  to  ufe  efforts  to  have 
it  reconftructed.  This  department  of  induftry  en- 
gaged much  of  Bradford's  time  and  efforts  alike  in 
Pennfylvania,  New  York  and  New  Jerfey.  How  far 
in  the  prefent  paper-mill  he  was  in  advance  of  the 
country,  generally,  may  be  inferred  from  this  fad,  that 
the  firft  paper-mill  in  New  England — a  region  which 
was  half  a  century  before  Pennfylvania  in  Englifh  fet- 
tlement — that  to-wit,  at  Milton,  Maffachufetts — was 
not  erected  till  A.  D.  1730;*  about  forty  years  after 
the  one  in  Pennfylvania.^ 

*  Munfell,  Chronology  of  Paper  and  Paper-Making,  p.  24. 

f  The  whole  fubjecl:  of  this  early  paper-mill  on  the  Wiffahickon  has 
lately  been  made  the  theme  of  a  valuable  Eflay  by  Horatio  Gates  Jones, 
Efquire,  the  gentleman  to  whom  I  refer  above,  and  who  upon  the  evening 


4-6  Commemorative  Addrefs. 

It  is  not  furprizing  that  Bradford  himfelf  and  his 
enterprize  and  accomplifhments  mould  have  attracted 
notice  from  the  early  travellers  and  hiftoriographers  of 
our  Province.  In  'The  Flourijhing  State  of  Pennfylva- 
nia,  written,  I  fuppofe,  about  A.  D.  1693-4,  by 
John  Holme, *  we  have  the  fubjectof  our  Addrefs  and 
his  manufacture  thus  referred  to : 

"  Here  dwelt  a  Printer,  and,  I  find, 

"  That  he  can  both  print  books  and  bind  ; 

"  He  wants  not  paper,  ink,  nor  Ikill ; 

"  He's  owner  of  a  paper-mill : 

"  The  paper-mill  is  here,  hard  by, 

"  And  makes  good  paper  frequently." 

Bradford,  as  Mr.  Jones  has  mown  us,  was  not  exclu- 
five  owner  of  this  mill.  He  was,  however,  fo  much 
the  finking  perfonage  among  the  partners,  and  fo 
much  the  active  and  efficient  manager  before  the  pub- 
lick  that  his  name  apparently  quite  over-topped  all 
others. 

But  the  circle  of  Bradford's  enterprize  and  accom- 

of  this  Addrefs  was  feated  on  the  ftage  as  a  reprefentative  from  the  Hif- 
torical  Society  of  Pennfylvania,  a  body  to  which  as  its  Correfponding 
Secretary  in  ordinary  he  renders  well  known  and  excellent  fervice.  His 
Eflay  was  entitled  Hiftorical  Sketch  of  the  Rittenhoufe  Paper-Mill ;  the 
Firft  erecled  in  America.  The  motto  is :  "  Contrary  to  the  King, 
"  his  Crown  and  Dignity,  thou  haft  built  a  paper-mill."  {Shakfpeare 
Henry  FI.)  Along  with  Mr.  Jones's  other  EfTay  Ebenezer  Kinnerfey 
and  his  Connection  with  Early  Difcoveries  in  Eleclricity,  this  Eflay 
conftitutes  one  of  the  moft  valuable  modern  hiftorical  manufcripts  I  know 
of.  I  here  acknowledge  my  obligation  to  Mr.  Jones  for  the  excellent 
paper  from  the  early  mill  he  defcribes  on  which  what  I  read  was  writ- 
ten ;  as  his  own  Eflay  alfo  was  entirely. 

*  Proc.  Hift.  Soc.  Penn.y  Dec,  1847,  No.  13,  vol.  i,  pp.  160,  172. 


Commemorative  Addrefs. 

plifhments  does  not  end  here.  The  amateurs  of 
Bibliopegy — or  cc  book-binding  "  as  we  ufed  to  call  it 
before  the  world  became  fo  very  learned — of  whom  in 
New  York,  New  Jerfey  and  Pennfylvania  there  are 
many,  cherim  him  as  the  father  of  that  art  in  the 
Middle  Colonies.  Undoubtedly  he  was  fo.  Some 
fpecimens  of  his  binding — and  good  ones  for  that 
early  day  they  are — are  frill  extant  in  our  old  libraries. 
To  him,  therefore,  we  trace  in  thefe  regions  that  art 
which  in  the  work-mop  of  your  own  Matthews  and 
with  us  of  Mr.  Nicholfon — himfelf  the  author  of  an 
attractive  work  on  Bibliopegy* — has  been  elevated 
almoft  to  the  rank  of  a  fine  art ;  giving  of  late  times 
to  this  our  country  that  fkill  and  tafte  which  as  dis- 
played by  Bauzonet  in  France,  and  by  Payne,  Lewis, 
McKenzie  and  Riviere  in  England,  has  fo  long  de- 
lighted the  Bibliophiles  of  every  land. 

I  here  exhibit  to  you  a  fpecimen  of  Bradford's  fkill 
in  this  department.  [Showing  a  Folio ;  the  New 
Jerfey  Laws  of  17 17.]  The  leather  is  what  is  known 
by  amateurs  as  c  bark-tanned  fheep,'  and  is  good. 
The  boards,  indeed,  are  lefs  hard  than  we  now  make 
them.  But  thefe  alfo  are  fair  as  judged  by  the  ftand- 
ards  of  that  day.  Pafte-board  was  then  often  made 
from  pulpy  and  not  as  now  from  junk ;  nor  Sub- 
jected to  a  preffure  which  ancient  fcience  had  not  at- 
tained to.  Time,  however,  has  affected  the  boards  I 
mow  you  ;  and  the  gluten  is  obvioufly  loofened  by 

*  A  Manual  of  Book-Binding,  containing  full  Inftruction  in  the 
Different  Branches  of  Forwarding,  Gilding  and  Finifhing;  alfo  the  Art 
of  Marbling  Book  Edges  and  Paper,  &c,  by  James  B.  Nicholfon, 
Philadelphia,  1856. 


48  Commemorative  Addrefs. 

this  and  moifture.  The  volume  is  ftrongly  fewed — 
the  ladies  prefent  muft  readily  fee  that ;  and  the  book 
is  fet  on  bands  that  are  raifed.  The  tooling,  gilt  in 
parts,  in  others  blind,  would  do  no  difcredit  to  the 
modern  artift ;  and  the  lettering,  though  rough,  has 
been  put  on  with  fteadinefs  and  care.  If  every  volume 
that  has  left  the  atelier  of  Bauzonet  mall  look  as  well 
when  one  hundred  and  forty-fix  years  have  gone  over 
it,  and  four  or  five  generations  of  lawyers  have  been 
pulling  it  apart,  that  elegant  minifter  to  the  external 
charm  of  letters  will  have  no  caufe  to  complain  of  the 
viciflitudes  of  earthly  things.  Bradford,  I  fuppofe, 
took  up  the  art  of  binding  books  as  a  neceffary  ap- 
pendage, in  a  new  country,  to  the  bufinefs  of  a  pub- 
lisher. If  this  were  fo,  he  arrived  at  a  high  degree, 
indeed,  of  lkill. 

Other  projects,  alfo,  far  enough  removed  one  would 
fay,  from  any  department  of  letters  engaged  our  fub- 
jecYs  active  mind.  In  October,  1689,  as  deeds  en- 
rolled in  our  Capitol*  ft  ill  mow,  Bradford  took  up  land 
upon  the  Delaware  "  in  order  to  erect  a  wharf  or  key 
<c  and  to  build  houfes  thereon  for  the  better  improve- 
"  ment  of  the  place  as  well  as  for  his  own  particular 
<c  profit."  And  he  received  authority  from  the  State 
"  to  contract  and  agree  with  and  to  recover  reafonable 
"  fatisfaction  from  all  perfons  making  ufe  of  the  fame 
"  by  fhipping  or  landing  goods  or  merchandife  and  by 
"  fhips,  boats,  or  merchandife  coming  to  the  fame." 

But  the  higheft  title  which  Bradford  has  to  our  re- 
fpect,  after  that  of  endeavouring  to  print  the  Holy 

*  Patent  Book  A,  vol.  iv,  p.  177. 


Commemorative  Addrefs.  49 

Scriptures  with  the  Prayer  Book,  remains  behind. 
He  was  the  nrft  man  to  eftabliih  the  prefs  in  thefe 
Middle  Colonies.  He  was  the  nrft  man,  any  where, 
fo  far  as  I  know,  to  maintain  its  freedom  againft  arbi- 
trary power. 

In  1689,  fome  queftion  having  arifen  between  the 
Governour  and  the  people  as  to  the  extent  of  their 
refpe&ive  rights,  Mr.  Jofeph  Growden,  one  of  the 
moft  intelligent  men  of  our  Province,  caufed  Bradford 
to  print  the  Charter.  Party  fpirit  ran  high.  Brad- 
ford feems  to  have  anticipated  trouble.  He  did  not 
put  his  name  as  printer  on  the  title;  no  c  imprint,'  as 
we  call  it.  As  foon  as  the  book  appeared,  he  was 
fummoned  before  the  Governour  and  Council  of  our 
Province,  and  examined  viva  voce  with  a  view  of  fix- 
ing on  him,  by  his  own  admijfions^  the  facl:  that  he  had 
printed  the  work.'"  With  what  fuccefs  thefe  dignita- 
ries of  the  State  now  tried  to  fix  it  on  him  by  that 
courfe,  the  examination  itfelf  will  fhew.    Thus  it  runs: 

tf  Governour. — Why,  fir,  I  would  know  by  what  power  or  authority 
"  you  thus  print  ?    Here  is  the  Charter  printed  !" 

"  Bradford. — It  was  by  Governour  Perm's  encouragement  I  came  to- 
"  this  Province,  and  by  his  licenfe  I  print." 

"  Governour. — What,  fir,  had  you  licenfe  to  print  the  Charter?  I  defire 
<f  to  know  from  you,  whether  you  did  print  the  Charter  or  not,  and  who' 
"  fet  you  to  work  ?" 

"  Bradford. — Governour,  it  is  an  impracticable  thing  for  any  man  to> 
"  accufe  himfelf;  thou  knows  it  very  well." 

"  Governour. — Well,  I  fhall  not  much  prefs  you  to  it,  but  if  you  were 
"  fo  ingenuous  as  to  confefs,  it  mould  go  the  better  with  you." 

"  Bradford. — Governour,  I  defire  to  know  my  accufers ;  I  think  it  very* 
"  hard  to  be  put  upon  accufing  myfelf." 

"  Governour. — Can  you  deny  that  you  printed  it?    I  do  know  you  did 

*  This  examination  was  had  "the  9th  of  the  fecond  month,  16895"  the  Gov- 
ernour of  PenniVlvania  being  at  that  time  Captain  John  Blackwell. 

G 


5° 


Co?nmemorative  Addrefs. 


"  print  it,  and  by  whofe  directions,  and  will  prove  it,  and  make  you  fmart 
"  for  it,  too,  fince  you  are  fo  ftubborn." 

"John  Hill. — I  am  informed  that  one  hundred  and  fixty  were  printed 
"  yefterday,  and  that  Jos.  Growden  faith  he  gave  20s  for  his  part  towards 
"  the  printing  it." 

"  Bradford. — It's  nothing  to  me,  what  '  Jos.  Growden  faith.'  Let  me 
"  know  my  accufers,  and  I  mall  know  the  better  how  to  make  my  defence  ; 
"I  do  not  defire  to  do  anything  that  might  give  offence  to  any  ;  I  have 
"  been  here  near  four  years,*  and  never  had  fo  much  fd  to  me  before  by 
"  Governour,  or  any  elfe.  Printing  the  laws,  was  one  of  the  chief  things 
"  Governour  Penn  propofed  to  me  before  I  came  here,  yet  I  have  forborne 
"  the  fame,  becaufe  I  have  not  had  particular  order;  but  if  I  had  printed 
"  them,  I  do  not  know  that  I  had  done  amifs." 

"  Governour. — Truly,  I  queftion  whether  there  hath  been  a  Governour 
"  here  before,  or  not,  or  them  which  underftood  what  Government  was  ; 
'  which  makes  things  as  they  now  are." 

"  Bradford. — That's  ftrange  !  I  do  think  and  believe  that  there  hath 
'  been  a  Governour  here.f  However,  fince  thee  came  here,  Governour, 
'c  I  never  heard  of  anything  to  the  contrary,  but  that  I  might  print  fuch 
'  things  as  came  to  my  hand,  whereby  to  get  my  living ;  it  is  that  by 
'  which  I  fubfift  ;  nor  do  I  know  of  any  ( Imprimatur '  appointed.  When 
'  things  are  fettled  and  ordered,  I  hope  I  mall  comply,  fo  far  as  to  en- 
'  deavour  to  avoid  giving  offence  to  any." 

"  Governour. — Sir,  I  am  'Imprimatur ,•'  and  that  you  mall  know.  I 
'  will  bind  you  in  a  bond  of  £500  that  you  fhall  print  nothing  but  what 
'  I  do  allow  of;  or  I  fhall  lay  you  faft." 

"  Bradford. — Governour,  I  have  not  hitherto  known  thy  pleafure 
1  herein,  and  therefore  hope  thou  wilt  judge  the  more  favourably,  if  I 
f  have  done  anything  that  does  not  look  well  to  fome." 

"  Governour. — If  you  would  confefs  you  might  expeft  favour,  but  I  fee 
e  you  are  willfull ;  you  mould  have  come  and  afkt  my  advice,  and  not 
'  have  done  any  thing  that  particular  parties  bring  to  you.  Sir,  I  have 
'  particular  order  from  Governour  Penn  for  the  fuppreffing  of  printing 
f  here,  and  narrowly  to  look  after  your  prefs,  and  I  will  fearch  your  houfe, 
'  look  after  your  prefs,  and  make  you  give  in  £500  fecurity  to  print 
'  nothing  but  what  I  allow,  or  I'll  lay  you  faft." 
*See  Appendix,  Note  10. 

j  Referring  obvioufly  to  Mr.  Penn,  of  whom  Governour  Blackwell  was  the  deputy. 


Commemorative  Addrefs.  5  1 


"  John  Hill. — The  Charter  is  the  groundwork  of  all  our  laws,  and  for 
"  you  to  print  it  at  this  time  without  order  from  Governour,  is  a  great 
"  mifdemeanour." 

"  Griffith  Jones. — William,  I  doubt  thou  heareft  and  takes  advice  of 
"  thofe  who  advife  thee  to  that  which  will  not  be  for  thy  good  at  laft." 

"  Bradford. — Governour,  it  is  my  imploy,  my  trade  and  calling,  and 
"  that  by  wch  I  get  my  living,  to  print ;  and  if  I  may  not  print  fuch  things 
"  as  come  to  my  hand,  which  are  innocent,  I  cannot  live;  I  am  not  a 
"  perfon  that  takes  fuch  advice  of  one  party  or  other,  as  Griffith  Jones 
"  feems  to  fuggeft.  If  I  print  one  thing  to-day,  and  the  contrary  party 
"  bring  me  another  to-morrow,  to  contradict  it,  I  cannot  fay  that  I  mail 
"  not  print  it.  Printing  is  a  manufacture  of  the  nation,  and  therefore 
"  ought  rather  to  be  encouraged  than  fuppreffed." 

"  Governour. — I  know  printing  is  a  great  benefit  to  a  country  if  it  be 
"  rightly  managed,  but  otherwife  as  great  a  mifchief.  Sir,  we  are  within 
"  the  king's  dominions,  and  the  laws  of  England  are  in  force  here,  and  you 
"  know  the  laws,  and  they  are  againft  printing,  and  you  mail  print  nothing 
"without  allowance;  I'll  make  Mr.  Growden  bring  forth  the  printer  of 
"  this  Charter." 

"  Bradford. — Since  it  hath  been  here  faid  that  the  Charter  is  the  ground 
"  or  foundation  of  all  our  laws  and  privileges,  both  of  Governour  and 
"  people,  I  would  willingly  afk  one  queftion,  if  I  may,  without  offence,  and 
"  that  is,  whether  the  people  ought  not  to  know  their  privileges  and  the 
"  laws  they  are  under :" 

"  Griffith  Jones. — There  is  a  p'ticular  office  (MS.  worn  out),  thou 
"  knows  where  ye  Charter  is  kept,  and  thofe  that  want  to  know  any  thing, 
"  may  have  recourfe  thither;  it  was  a  very  ill  thing  for  thee,  at  this  junc- 
"  ture,  to  offer  to  print  the  Charter." 

"  Governour. — It  is  a  thing  that  ought  not  to  be  made  publick  to  all  the 
"  world ;  and  therefore  is  intrufted  in  a  particular  perfon's  hand  whom  the 
"  people  confide  in." 

"  Griffith  Jones. — William  thou  knows  thy  father  fufrered  much  in 
"  England  for  printing  (though  I  do  not  fay  for  doing  any  thing  againft  the 
"  law  or  meddling  with  Government),  and  I  would  not  have  thee  bring 
"  trouble  on  thyfelf." 

"  Bradford. — If  it  were  not  for  the  people  to  fee  and  know  their  pri- 
"  vileges,  why  was  the  Charter  printed  in  England  ?" 

"  Governour — It  was  not  printed  in  England." 


52 


Commemorative  Addrefs. 


"  Bradford. — Govcrnour,  under  favour,  it  was  printed  in  England." 
"  Governour. — It  was  not.    What,  this  Charter?" 
"  Bradford. — Yes,  this  Charter,  but  that  fome  alterations  have  been 
"  made  fince." 

"  Griffith  Jones. — By  what  order  did  you  print  it  in  England  ?" 
"  Bradford. — By  Governour  Penn's." 

"  Governour. — That  was  fomething ;  but  you  was  not  to  print  it  of 
si  your  own  accord 

«  Bradford.— Have  I?" 

"  Governour. — That  I  mall  prove  and  make  you  know,  fir." 

"  Griffith  Jones. — There  is  as  much  need  of  the  alteration  of  the  Char- 
"  ter  now  as  ever;  and  may  be,  if  fix  parts  of  feven  of  the  people  be 
"  agreed  ;  which  is  not  impoffible." 

"  Governour. — There  is  that  in  this  Charter  which  overthrows  all  your 
"  laws  and  privileges.  Governour  Penn  hath  granted  more  power  and 
"  privileges  than  he  hath  himfelf." 

"  Bradford. — That  is  not  my  bufinefs  to  judge  of  or  determine ;  but  if 
"  any  thing  be  laid  to  my  charge,  let  me  know  my  accufers.  I  am  not 
"  bound  to  accufe  myfelf." 

I  here  exhibit  to  you  [mewing  an  ancient  MS.  and 
volume]  the  account  in  Bradford's  own  writing  of  the 
examination  I  have  juft  read  ;  and  alfo  a  copy  of  the 
book,  the  property  of  Mr.  Kite  already  fpoken  of, 
for  printing  which  he  was  fummoned  before  the 
Governour  and  Council.  The  MS.  was  found  not  long 
fince  among  fome  ancient  papers  at  Chefter,  in  Penn- 
fylvania.  I  will  have  the  honour,  if  you  will  allow 
me,  Mr.  Prefldent,  to  offer  it  as  my  gift  on  this  the 
two  hundredth  anniverfary  of  Bradford's  birth,  to  the 
New  York  Hiftorical  Society,  which  this  day  and  eve- 
ning does  honour  to  his  memory.* 

After  fuch  a  fcene,  as  that  above  defcribed,  with  the 

*  This  venerable  document — gracioufly  accepted  by  the  corporation, 
with  thanks,  and  framed  fo  as  to  exhibit  both  fides —  now  hangs  in  the 
Hall  of  the  Hiftorical  Society,  New  York. 


Commemorative  Addrefs.  53 

fupreme  powers  of  the  State,  and  after  learning  from 
them  that  Governour  Penn  had  given  £C  particular  order 
for  the  fuppremng  of  printing"  in  his  Province, 
Bradford  fenfibly  concluded  that  for  whomever  elfe 
Pennfylvania  might  have  attractions,  or  whatever  in 
the  future  it  might  offer  to  any  one — and  I  beg  to  fay, 
Ladies  and  Gentlemen,  that  it  does,  at  this  time,  offer 
the  greater!:  pomble  attractions  to  every  one,  to  ladies, 
efpecially,  in  a  charming  Opera  Houfe  and  other  like 
things,  which  William  Penn  did  not  inftruct  us  in — it 
was  not,  juft  then,  the  place  for  him.  The  Prefs,  by 
fome  accident,  in  getting  between  the  banks  of  the 
Delaware  and  Schuylkill,  had  got,  for  the  moment, 
out  of  its  latitude.  We  are  not  furprifed  accordingly 
to  find  among  the  records  of  Friends'  Meeting  at  this 
time  an  application  by  Bradford  for  his  '  Bene  Dec ejfit* 
as  follows : 

"  Monthly  Meeting,  5  mo.  26,  1689. 
"  William  Bradford  laid  before  this  meeting  his  intention  of  tranfporting 
**  himfelf  to  England.    According  to  his  requeft,  Friends  order  John  Eakly 
"  and  Anthony  Morris  to  draw  up  a  certificate  for  him  of  his  good  be- 
haviour." 

The  Society  of  Friends,  expecting,  I  fuppofe,  in  a 
good  degree  to  control  it,  had  always  defired  to  have 
the  Printing  Prefs  in  Pennfylvania.  This  announce- 
ment by  their  fellow-citizen  of  his  purpofe  to  abandon 
the  State  entirely,  caufed  a  fenfation  in  this  refpeclable 
but  ufually  unimpamoned  body ;  and  a  ftrong  effort 
to  retain  him.  cc  The  fubfequent  Yearly  Meeting,'' 
as  Mr.  Kite  informs  me,  "agreed  to  grant  him,  be- 
"  fides  all  the  bufinefs  which  they  could  throw  in  his 
"  way,  a  yearly  falary  of  £40 ;  and  the  Yearly  Meet- 


54  Commemorative  Addrefs. 

<c  ing  convened  on  the  9th  of  7th  month,  1691,  agreed 
"  that  of  all  books  printed  with  the  advice  of  Friends, 
"  the  Quarterly  Meeting  mould  take  at  leaft  two 
<c  hundred  copies." 

But  the  prefs  was  not  deftined  to  have  a  peaceful 
career  in  my  now  liberal  and  peaceful  State.  In  1692 
a  fchifm  of  the  moft  ferious  character  rent  in  twain  the 
Unity  of  Friends.  cc  Meeting"  was  divided  into  the 
Foxian  Friends  and  the  Keithian  Friends,  and  they 
were  friends  in  no  way  whatfoever  but  their  names. 
<c  Nos  Enemis,  les  Amis,"  would  have  been  as  applicable 
in  that  day  as  the  French  thought  cc  Nos  Amis,  les 
Enemis"  was  in  a  later.*  I  mall  not  attempt  to  ex- 
plain to-night  before  the  ladies  of  New  York — arrayed 
fo  enchantingly  around  this  theatrick  circle,  in  the 
chapeaux  raviffants  and  robes  fi  exquifes  of  the  fafhions 
of  fpring — the  ancient  profundities  of  the  Faith  of 
Friends  ;  which  in  this  cafe,  involved  the  profundi- 
ties of  their  folly  alfo.  The  Genius  Loci  does  not 
invite  the  topick  ;  and  it  would  hold  incongruous  fel- 
lowfhip,  I  am  thinking,  with  the  variegated  hues  of 
diamonds  that  during  this  addrefs  have  been  flaming 
themfelves  towards  my  eyes.  The  matter  feems  finally 
to  have  refolved  itfelf  a  good  deal  into  a  quarrel  be- 
tween Friends  in  power  and  Friends  out  of  power; 
a  kind  of  quarrel  which,  in  thefe  days,  when  politi- 
cians are  fo  conftantly  before  us,  we  underftand  but 

*  It  is  faid  to  be  matter  of  ftatiftical  fa£l — I  don't  vouch  for  it — that 
after  the  allied  armies  entered  Paris  in  181 5  their  conjommation  of  wine, 
brandy,  &c.,  was  fo  vaft  that  the  money  they  fpent  for  it  more  than  paid 
the  levies  made  upon  the  city  by  the  capturing  forces.  But  a  Frenchman 
is  always  philofophick ! 


Commemorative  Addrefs.  55 

too  abundantly  well.  Bradford  printed  a  tract  for  the 
party  combatant  out  of  power.  For  this  he  was 
arretted,  and  the  fheriff  being  fent  to  fearch  his  office, 
took  porTeilion  of  his  tools,  type,  and  alfo  of  the  form 
from  which  the  obnoxious  pamphlet  had  been  printed. 
The  trial  was  had  in  ftate  before  two  Quaker  judges, 
Jennings  and  Cook,  alTifted  by  others.  A  curious 
contemporary  account  of  it  ftill  remains  to  us.  The 
prifoner  conducted  his  cafe  in  perfon,  and  managed  it, 
fays  Mr.  David  Paul  Brown,  from  whofe  Forum*  I 
extract  the  account,  cc  with  a  fearlefsnefs,  force,  acute- 
tc  nefs  and  Ikill  which  fpeak  very  highly  for  his  intelli- 
cc  gence  and  accurate  conception  of  legal  principles. " 
When  the  jury  were  called,  he  challenges  two  of  them 
becaufe  they  had  formed  and  exprefTed  opinions,  not 
as  to  the  fact  of  his  having  publifhed  the  paper,  but 
as  to  its  being  of  a  Jeditious  character ;  opinions  which 
he  himfeif  had  heard  them  exprefs.  The  Profecuting 
Attorney  fays  to  Bradford,  after  he  had  made  his  ex- 
ception : 

"  Haft  thou  at  any  time  heard  them  fay  that  thou  printed  the  paper  ?  foi 
"  that  is  only  what  they  are  to  find." 

"  Bradford. — That  is  not  only  what  they  are  to  find.  They  are  to 
"  find  alfo  whether  this  be  a  feditious  paper  or  not,  and  whether  it  does 
"  tend  to  the  weakening  of  the  hands  of  the  magiitrates." 

"  Attorney. — No,  that  is  matter  of  law,  which  the  jury  is  not  to  meddle 
"  with,  but  find  whether  William  Bradford  hath  printed  it  or  not." 

"  Juftice  Jennings. — You  are  only  to  try  whether  William  Bradford 
"printed  it  or  not." 

"  Bradford  — This  is  wrong." 

We  have,  therefore,  in  this  trial — continues  Mr. 


*  Vol.  i,  p.  280. 


56  Commemorative  Addrefs 

Brown* — evidence  of  the  facl,  interefting  to  the  whole 
Bar  and  Prefs  of  America,  and  efpecially  interefting  to 
the  Bar  and  the  Prefs  of  the  Middle  Colonies,  that,  on 
the  foil  of  Pennfylvania,  the  father  of  our  prefs  afferted, 
in  1692,  with  a  precifion  not  flnce  furpaffed,  a  princi- 
ple in  the  law  of  libel  hardly  then  conceived  anywhere, 
but  which  now  protects  every  publication  in  much  of 
our  Union  ;  a  principle  which  Englifh  judges,  after 
the  ftruggles  of  the  great  whig  Chief  Jufticeand  Chan- 
cellor, Lord  Camden,  through  his  whole  career,  and 
of  the  brilliant  declaimer,  Mr.  Erlkine,  were  unable 
to  reach  ;  and  which,  at  a  later  day,  became  finally 
eftablifhed  in  England  only  by  the  enactment  of  Mr. 
Fox's  Libel  Bill  in  Parliament  itfelf.f 

A  record  of  this  trial  is  ftill  existing.  J  It  is  a  curi- 
ous document  but  much  too  long  for  me  to  read.  An 
amufing  incident  in  the  jury-room  will  be  appreciated 
by  this  audience,  where  I  fee  fome  ladies  who  mare 
with  our  lefs  worthy  fex  the  buflnefs  of  authorfhip, 
and  others  whofe  graceful  forms  mingle  in  the  pano- 
rama of  the  printing-houfe.  The  Profecution  wifhed 
to  prove  that  Bradford  had  printed  the  pamphlet ;  a 
facl:  of  which  there  was  no  legal  evidence.    He  had 

*  The  Forum,  i,  281. 

■j"  At  the  clofe  of  the  prefent  addrefs  the  Honourable  Gulian  C.  Ver- 
planck,  whofe  prefence,  feldom  now  drawn  from  his  dignified  and  well 
employed  retirement,  was  one  of  the  gratifying  incidents  of  the  occafion, 
made  fome  interefting  remarks  upon  the  influence  which  Bradford's  early 
defence  of  the  Prefs  had  had  on  fubfequent  times,  both  here  and  in 
England,  and  tracing  Mr.  Fox's  Libel  Bill  fpecifically  to  Bradford's  por- 
tion and  efforts.    {See  Supra,  Introductory  Note,  p.  12.) 

J  Mr.  Menzies  owns  a  copy  of  the  original  work.  An  abftra£t  of  it 
is  given  by  Thomas ;  Hiftory  of  Printing,  ii,  pp.  1 2-24. 


Commemorative  Addrefs.  57 

taken  care  that  no  one  mould  fee  him  print  it.  Mr. 
Attorney  now  brought  in  the  form,  already  feized  by 
him,  on  which  the  pamphlet  had  itfelf  been  printed. 
The  difcovery  was  received  with  exultation  by  the 
profecuting  party.  Bradford  contended  rightly  that 
the  form  was  no  proof  againft  him  until  they  had  fhewn 
that  he  had  printed  from  it.  Still  it  was  put  as  proof 
before  the  Jury.  Unable,  however,  to  read  the  matter 
from  the  types,  without  looking  at  them  clofely,  the 
foreman  began  to  pafs  the  chafe  along  the  panel.  Of 
a  fudden  the  quoins  got  loofe  and  the  mafs  of  type  fell 
through,  a  pile  of  indecipherable  pi!  The  evidence 
has  difappeared  by  magick  !  Bradford  now  publifhed 
an  account  of  his  Trial  which  he  circulated  extensively. 
He  already,  fays  Mr.  Brown,  had  the  jeft  on  his  fide, 
which  in  common  apprehenflon,  was  a  victory;  and  it 
was  not  long  before  he  got  the  'judgment'  with  him 
alfo.  He  appealed  at  once  from  the  juftices  under 
whofe  order  his  prefs  had  been  feized — an  inferiour 
county  tribunal — to  the  Governour  in  Council.  The 
cafe  came  on  to  be  heard  April  27th,  1693,  before  the 
Governour,  your  own  Col.  Fletcher,  who  was  at  the 
time  Governour,  in  fad,  of  our  Province  alfo,  the 
Lieutenant  Governour  (Markham)  and  the  Council- 
Board.  The  Minutes  record  his  triumph. *  Thus 
they  run  : 

"Friday,  the  28th  April,  1693. 

"  Upon  reading  the  petition  of  William  Bradford,  Printer,  directed  to 
"  His  Excellency,  wherein  he  fet  forth  that,  in  September  laft,  his  tools 
"  and  letters  were  feized  by  order  of  the  late  rulers,  for  printing  fome  books 
"  of  controverfie,  and  are  ftill  kept  from  him,  to  the  great  hurt  of  his  family, 
"  and  prays  reliefe — His  Excellency  did  afk  the  advice  of  this  Board. 

*  Minutes  of  the  Provincial  Council,  vol.  i.  p.  326. 

H 


58 


Commemorative  Addrefs. 


u  The  fevcral  members  of  Council  being  well  acquainted  with  the  truth 
"  of  the  petitioner's  allegations,  are  of  opinion  and  do  advife  His  Exccl- 
"  lency  to  caufc  the  petitioner's  tools  and  letters  to  be  reftored  to  him : 

"  Ordered  that  John  White,  Sheriff  of  Philadelphia,  do  reftore  to  Wil- 
"liam  Bradford,  Printer,  his  tools  and  letters,  taken  from  him  in  Sep- 
"  tember  laft." 

Bradford's  old  foes  upon  the  bench,  c  Sam'!  Jen- 
nings'  and  c  Arthur  Cooke,'  not  long  after  this  re- 
figned  their  places. :;:  Like  Robin  hoftler,  after  cc  the 
rife  of  oats,"  it  feemed  as  if  they  £C  never  joyed  fince  ;" 
<cit  was  the  death  of  them." 

Notwithftanding,  however,  that  Bradford's  triumph 
was  here  complete,  he  probably  faw,  as  I  have  faid, 
that  Pennfylvania,  though  fo  profitable,  in  future 
generations  of  his  family,  did  not,  to  himfelf,  at  that 
time,  prefent  the  fairefl:  field  for  the  exercife  of  his 
Art.f    He  had  been  fummoned,  we  have  feen,  before 

*  On  Col.  Fletcher's  acceffion  to  power,  the  old  commiffions,  it  would 
feem,  were  confidered  as  vacated.  The  Proceedings  of  the  Provincial 
Council  contain  the  following  entry  as  of  5th  May,  1693  : 

Sam'l  Jennings,  a  former  Juftice  of  the  Peace,  being  fent  for,  His  Excell.  did  offer 
to  continue  him  in  the  fame  ftation;  which  he  did  refufe.  Arthur  Cooke,  in  like 
manner,  did  refufe.     [Minutes  of  the  Provincial  Council,  i,  331.) 

The  Reverend  Judges  had  taken  things  in  high  offence. 

f  Indeed  it  feems  uncertain  whether  Bradford  could  at  any  time  have 
confidered  himfelf  as  fixed  with  the  utmoft  permanence  in  Philadelphia. 
In  this  letter  of  ift  of  ift  month,  1687-8,  to  the  Half  Year's  Meeting  of 
Friends  at  Burlington,  about  the  Bible,  he  fays,  (having  been,  then,  fixed 
at  Philadelphia  only  about  two  and  a  half  years),  that  it  had  been 
"  fpoken  up  and  down  concerning  his  going  to  England  to  live ;"  and  that 
it  had  been  his  intention  fo  to  have  done.  But  perceiving  that  Friends 
and  people  generally  were  concerned  thereat  had  caufed  him  "  to  decline 
el  his  faid  intentions  at  prefent"  Eighteen  months  afterwards  ("  5  th 
"  month  26  1689,")  as  we  have  feen  he  adually  laid  before  this  meeting 
"  his  intention  of  tranfporting  himfelf  to  England,"  and  a  committee  was 
appointed  to  give  him  a  Certificate  Demifory. 


Commemorative  Addrefs. 


59 


the  Council  of  State  for  the  very  firft  thing  he  printed, 
his  Almanack  of  1686;  and,  for  an  ordinary  title  of 
refpecl  to  Mr.  Penn,  ordered  to  print  nothing  there- 
after without  licenfe  from  the  Government.  The 
Minutes  of  Friends'  Meeting  in  1687  fhew  that  the 
Religious  Body  of  the  Province,  then  indeed  fupreme 
throughout  our  fociety,  confidered  that  the  Prefs  was 
as  fair  a  fubjecT:  of  control  by  them.  Here  is  one  of 
the  records  : 

"Quarterly  Meeting  10  Month  5,  1687. 

<c  Ordered  by  this  Meeting  that  William  Bradford  the  Printer  do  fhew 
"  what  may  concern  Friends  or  Truth  before  printing,  to  the  Quarterly 
"  Meeting  of  Philadelphia  ;  and  if  it  require  fpeed  to  the  Monthly  Meeting 
"  where  it  may  belong. 

"  And  it  is  further  Ordered  by  the  Meeting  that  John  Eakly,  John 
"  Shelfon,  Samuel  Richardfon  and  Samuel  Carpenter  do  view  or  perufe 
"  the  Almanack  of  Edward  Eakin's  writing,  before  it  goes  to  be  printed, 
"in  behalf  of  this  Meeting." 

What  between  the  Political  Enactment  already  re- 
ferred to  that  Bradford  mould  cblot  out'  part  of  what 
he  had  printed,  and  thereafter  mould  not  print  "any 
u  thing  but  what  fhall  have  lycence  from  ye  Council," 
and  this  new  decree  of  the  Body  Ecclefiaftical  that  be- 
fore printing  he  mould  mew  what  may  concern 
Friends  or  Truth — Truth  and  Friends  being  at 
this  time  in  Pennfylvania  identical — to  the  Quarterly 
Meeting  or  if  it  require  fpeed  to  the  Monthly  Meet- 
ing— our  civil  and  fober  young  man,  to  whom 
Thomas  Lloyd  and  the  reft  of  the  rnagiftrates  had 
been  defired  by  George  Fox  in  1685*  to  give  what 
encouragements  they  could,  really  found  himfelf  in 

*   ee  Supra,  p.  25. 


60  Commemorative  Addrefs. 

1687  in  the  free  wildernefs  of  Mr.  Perm's  woods  much 
in  the  ftate  of  liberty  which  he  would  have  enjoyed  had 
he  erected  his  Prefs  upon  the  ancient  and  too  civilized 
Hopes  of  the  Ouirinal.  In  Rome  itfelf,  but  two 
Cenjuras  are  required.  The  Politico  is  given  Jalvo  il 
Ecclefiqftico,  but  when  both  are  obtained  the  Compofi- 
tor  may  begin.  This  diftin&ion  only  would  have 
exifted  in  favour  of  the  dominions  of  the  Holy  Father 
that,  there,  by  effort,  both  Permejfos  may  be  had  within 
two  and  feventy  hours ;  while  in  Bradford's  time 
and  land,  three  months  was  the  time  contemplated  as 
for  ordinary,  with  the  fpecial  privilege,  indeed,  of 
thirty  days,  if  the  thing — like  the  Proclamation  of  a 
Murder,  I  fuppofe — required  "fpeed."* 

The  fcene  now  fhifts,  and  Bradford  is  liftening  to 
propofals  from  New  York. 

The  defire  to  have  the  printing  prefs  had,  however, 
been  exhibited  in  this  Province  long  prior  to  the  date 
of  which  we  are  fpeaking  (1692).  In  1668  Governour 
Lovelace — your  fecond  Englifh  Governour — fending 
to  Long  Ifland  fome  books  which  had  been  printed 
for  the  Indians  in  England,  had  written: 

"  I  am  not  out  of  hopes,  ere  long,  to  have  a  printer  here  of  my  own  ; 
"  having  already  fent  to  Bofton  for  one  ;  but  whether  I  fhall  fpeed  or  no 
"  is  uncertain."|"" 

He  did  not  fpeed. 

The  acceffion  of  James  II.,  in  1685,  put  an  end  to 
*  See  Appendix,  Note  1 1. 

*("  For  the  extract  above  given  from  "  Orders,  Warrants,  Letters,  &c, 
"vol.  ii,  N.  Y.,"  and  form  other  extracts,  as  well  as  for  much  impor- 
tant matter  generally  about  the  early  prefs  in  New  York,  I  have  to  exprefs 
my  great  thanks  to  George  Henry  Moore,  Efquire,  Secretary  of  the  New 


Commemorative  Addrefs.  61 

all  hopes  like  thefe.  Among  the  firft  instructions  from 
England  were  the  following  very  gloomy  ones,  in 
i686?  to  Governour  Dongan  : 

"  For  as  much  as  great  inconvenience  may  arife  by  the  liberty  of  print - 
"  ing  within  our  Province  of  New  York,  you  are  to  provide,  by  all  necef- 
"  fary  orders,  that  no  perfon  keep  any  prefs  for  printing ;  nor  that  any 
"  book,  pamphlet,  or  other  matters  whatsoever,  be  printed — without  your 
"  efpecial  leave  and  licenfe  firft  obtained."* 

With  the  Revolution  of  1688  came  brighter  pro- 
fpects,  and  Fletcher's  active  mind  was  quick  to  profit 
by  them.  Bradford's  oft  announced  purpofe  of  going 
back  to  England,  and  the  fchifm  by  which  every  thing 
at  Philadelphia  had  been  thrown  for  the  prefent  into 
confufion,  had  doubtlefs  become  known  far  beyond  the 
limits  of  Pennfylvania.  We  find,  accordingly,  the  fol- 
lowing Entry  on  the  Council  Minutes  of  your  Pro- 
vince, meant  obvioufly  to  attract  our  Bradford  hither: 

York  Hiftorical  Society  and  the  well  known  author  of  "  The  Treafon  of 
"  Charles  Lee?'  After  I  had  accepted  the  invitation  to  make  this 
Addrefs,  Mr.  Moore  in  the  kindeft  manner  vifited  Albany,  fpent 
fome  days  there,  and  collected  from  the  MSS.  in  the  Publick  Departments 
large  amounts  of  matter  relating  to  this  fubjedl.  Some  of  it  not  ufed  here, 
I  purpofe  to  prefent,  at  the  recmeft  of  the  Bradford  Club,  in  another 
form,  hereafter. 

*  This  order,  as  Mr.  Moore  obferves,  in  tranfmitting  it  to  me  from 
the  State  Archives  at  Albany,  is  the  more  remarkable,  fince  it  does  not 
appear  that  James  II,  while  Duke  of  York,  manifefted  any  difinclination 
to  having  the  prefs  in  his  Colony.  It  is  very  probable  that  Mr.  Penn's 
oppofition  to  the  prefs  in  1689,  as  Hated  by  Governour  Blackwell 
{Supra  p.  53),  after  having  propofed  to  Bradford,  before  he  came  here, 
to  print  the  Laws,  may  have  been  caufed  by  fome  intimations  from  the 
Crown.    Indeed,  we  can  hardly  doubt  it. 


6  2  Commemorative  Addrefs, 

"  March  23,  1693. 
"  Resolved  in  Council,  That  if  a  Printer  will  come  and  fettle  in  the 
"  city  of  New  York  for  the  printing  of  our  Acts  of  Assembly  and  Publick 
"  Papers,  he  fhall  be  allowed  the  fum  of  £40  current  money  of  New  York 
"  per  annum  for  his  falary  and  have  the  benefit  of  his  printing  befides  what 
"  ferves  the  publick."* 

Bradford  now,  inftead  of  returning  to  England, 
came  to  New  York ;  a  much  better  place  every  one 
will  admit  than  London  or  any  other  town  in  the 
Britifh  Ifles  :  I  will  fay  nothing,  in  the  prefence  of 
fo  many  ladies,  about  Paris,  whither  fo  many  of  your 
own  people  refort,  and  not  unfrequently  to  refide ;  the 
city  which  boafts  its  c  Mai/on  Delijle 1  for  one  clafs  of 
one  fex  ;  and  to  which  Edward  Gibbon  ought  perhaps 
to  reconcile  the  foberefl  of  the  other  by  his  recorded 
afTurance,f  that  while  the  Englim  ££  might  fay  what 
"  they  would  of  the  frivolity  of  the  French,  he  had 
<c  heard,  in  one  fortnight  pafTed  in  Paris,  more  con- 
<c  verfation  worth  remembering,  and  feen  more  men  of 
"  letters  among  the  people  of  fafhion,  than  he  had 
cc  done  in  two  or  three  winters  in  London."J 

*  Council  Minutes  vi,  182  . 

*j-  Autobiography  :  Letter  to  Mrs.  Gibbon,  Paris,  February  12,  1763. 

J  So  many  perfons  from  New  York,  indeed  from  all  parts  of  America, 
now  refide,  either  temporarily  or  permanently,  in  Paris,  and  have  the 
eftimate  of  its  intellectual  attractions  which  Mr.  Gibbon  had,  that  per- 
manent religious  miniftrations  by  American  clergy  in  American  Church 
edifices,  are  now  becoming  fully  eftablifhed  in  that  city.  Among  the 
clergy  who  affifted  at  Trinity  Church  in  doing  honour  to  Bradford's  me- 
mory, and  who  were  prefent  alfo  at  the  delivery  of  this  addrefs,  was  the 
Rev.  W.  O.  Lamfon,  Redlor  of  the  American  Church  of  the  Holy 
Trinity  in  Paris ;  a  gentleman  now  refiding  there  in  the  exercife  of  his 
facred  office  and  duties ;  and  I  may  add,  I  am  fure,  to  the  pleafure,  con- 
folation  an   advantage,  moral  and  focial,  of  every  one  who  knows  him. 


Commemorative  Addrefs.  63 

Bradford  and  the  Friends  in  Philadelphia — I 
ought  to  fay,  however — had  previously  difTolved  their 
arrangements  with  perfect  bienfeance.  Here  is  the  re- 
cord :  The  fpeclator  may  fee  beneath  it  whatever  its 
tranflucency,  or  the  want  of  it,  may  difclofe. 

Monthly  Meeting  2  month,  29,  1692. 
"  William  Bradford  propofing  to  this  Meeting  that  if  Friends  faw  it  fitting 
"  he  defired  to  be  difcharged  from  the  engagement  between  Friends  and 
"  him  concerning  the  Prefs,  Friends  having  confidered  the  matter  are  very 
"  willing  the  faid  Bradford  mould  be  free  fo  far  as  regards  this  Meeting. 
*'  And  the  Meeting  appoints  Samuel  Carpenter,  John  De  LaVale,  Robert 
"  Ewer  and  Alexander  Beardfley  to  collect  what  is  fubfcribed  and  due  for 
<f  the  time  part  within  the  limits  of  this  Meeting,  and  pay  the  fame  to  Wil- 
"liam  Bradford  and  bring  an  account  thereof  to  the  next  Monthly 
"  Meeting." 

Arriving  in  New  York  he  was  immediately  ap- 
pointed Royal  Printer.  The  12th  day  of  O&ober, 
1693,  as  Mr.  Moore  has  difcovered,  is  the  date  of  the 
firft  warrant  for  his  falary ;  fix  months  referred  to  as 
Ci  due  on  the  10th  preceding."*  April  10th,  1693, 
therefore  may  be  fixed  as  the  epoch  when  printing  was 
introduced  into  this  Province.  Soon  after  his  arrival 
here  we  find  Mr.  Bradford  included  among  the  Offi- 
cers of  the  Crown  ;f  not  a  flight  diflinclion  in  thofe 
days ;  nor  even  in  thefe,  meafuring  fuch  things  by 
Britifh  eftimates. 

Forty  pounds  a  year,  which  was  the  falary  fixed, 

*  Council  Minutes  vii,  27;  1 2th  October,  1693.  '  The  next  pay- 
'  merit,'  writes  Mr.  Moore,  'was  for  £10  one  quarter  falary  to  10th 
'January  1694.;  Id.  vii,  49.' 

f  See  "  A  Lift  of  all  the  Officers  imployed  in  Civil  Offices  in  the 
"Province  of  New  York  in  America  the  20th  April  1693  and  of  their 
Salaries Documents  relating  to  the  Colonial  Hiftory  of  New  York, 
4-to,  iv,  760. 


64  Commemorative  Addrefs. 

would  be  thought  rather  cc  poor  pay"  in  thefe  times, 
at  Albany,  as  the  refults  of  a  year's  printing.  But  the 
duty  as  originally  required  of  the  Crown  Printer  was 
confined  to  printing  Ads  of  AfTembly,  Proclamations, 
&c,  and  in  times  when  The  Governour  in  Chief  and 
Vice  Admiral  received  only  £600,  the  Collector  and 
Receiver  General  £200,  the  Sub-Collector  at  Albany 
£50,  and  the  Surveyor  General  £40,  he  was  as  well 
paid  as  they.  Bradford  was  fortunate,  too,  perhaps, 
in  living  in  more  modeft  days  than  ours  ;  and  pofTibly 
not  lejs  honert  ones  ;  though  I  know,  of  courfe,  that 
at  Albany  in  this  State,  as  at  Harrifburgh  in  ours, 
honefty  is  the  rule ;  every  thing  elfe  being  the  rare 
exception. 

The  printing  prefs  had  fcarcely  been  eftablifhed  in 
New  York,  before  the  popular  feeling  defired  to  ex- 
tend its  ufe  beyond  that  which  the  Provincial  Govern- 
ment, on  introducing  it,  had  intended ;  which  was  to 
print  the  £  Acts  of  AfTembly  and  Publick  Papers,'  such, 
I  prefume,  as  Proclamations,  Royal  Notices,  &c. 
The  proceedings  fhew  how  early  and  how  deeply  laid 
among  our  people  was  that  cc  fierce  fpirit  of  liberty," 
"  ftronger,"  faid  Mr.  Burke,  cc  in  the  Englifh  Colo- 
cc  nies  probably  than  in  any  other  people  of  the  earth," 
and  whofe  great  variety  of  powerful  caufes  that  ftates- 
man  traced  and  laid  open,  near  a  century  ago,  with 
fuch  truth  and  fuch  philofophy,  in  his  fpeech  upon 
Conciliation  with  America.* 

On  the  20th  October,  1694,  for  example,  a  Com- 
mittee of  the  Council  was  appointed  "  to  confider 
<c  what  papers  and  meffages  pafTed  between  his  Excel- 

*  The  works  of  Edmund  Burke  ;  Bofton,  1 839,  vol.  ii,  p.  32. 


Commemorative  Addrefs.  65 

cc  lency  and  Council  and  AfTembly  this  feffions,  are 
£C  proper  to  be  printed  and  publifhed — for  the  fatisfac- 
"  tion  of  the  People."  Nothing,  however,  was  re- 
folved.  The  Crown  influence,  though  filent,  was  too 
ftrong. 

But  c  the  People '  were  not  difcouraged.  On  the 
1 2th  April,  1695,  the  AfTembly  addrefs  the  Governour 
for  leave  cc  to  print  their  Journal. "  His  Excellency 
diflblved  the  Houfe  almoft  immediately. 

The  next  AfTembly,  which  met  on  the  20th  June, 
renewed  the  attempt  to  have  their  votes  printed. 
This  time  they  were  fuccefsful.  The  Governour,  Col. 
Fletcher,  making,  I  fuppofe,  a  merit  of  neceflity,  gave 
his  afTent  gracioufly. 

In  returning  his  reply,  it  is  interefting  to  note  that 
he  exprefTes  his  hopes  "  that  the  Houfe  before  the 
cc  feffions  end,  will  allow  The  Printer  fomething  of 
cc  further  encouragement."  Bradford's  falary  was  now 
fixed  at  £60. 

Whatever  fuggeftions  may  hover  about  the  name  of 
Fletcher — I  know  not  that  any  one  of  them  will  ever 
reft — his  fervices,  at  this  time,  deferve,  no  doubt,  our 
eulogy.  While  the  Rulers  of  Virginia,  aiming,  per- 
haps, the  prohibition  at  Bradford  himfelf,  ordered  that 
C£  no  one  mould  ufe  the  printing  prefs  on  any  occafion 
<c  whatever,"*  your  enlightened  Governour  was  doing 
all  he  could  to  invite  it  permanently  to  New  York. 
Do  you  alk  which  was  the  wifer  Statesmanfhip  ?  Be- 

*  The  Inftru&ions  to  Lord  Effingham  who  was  appointed  Governour  in 
1683  juft  about  the  time  I  fuppofe  that  Bradford  may  have  been  furveying 
the  Colonial  field  to  fee  where  he  might  with  beft  advantage  fix  his  polls, 
are  to  this  precife  effed.    (Thomas,  Hi/lory  of  Printing  ii,  141.) 
I 


66  Commemorative  Addrefs. 

hold  your  own  Commonwealth,  abounding  in  riches, 
beautified  by  cultivation,  preeminent  in  commerce,  the 
home  of  increafing  and  freeborn  millions — her  metro- 
polis one  of  the  glories  of  this  fair  earth,  and  looking 
forth  in  pride  upon  the  fea, — and  then  turn  you,  if  as 
Americans  you  can  turn,  to  Virginia — difmembered — 
defolated — difloyal — bankrupt  and  difgraced.  Can  it 
be  that  fuch  a  State  was  the  birthplace  of  Wafhington 
and  John  Marfhall  ? 

The  firft  ilTue  of  Bradford's  prefs  in  this  city,  as  your 
own  diftinguifhed  citizen,  Mr.  Romeyn  Brodhead,  has 
difcovered,  was  a  Polyglot  ;  one  part  being  Englifh, 
and  the  other,  a  duplicate,  in  Dutch.  The  imprint 
of  the  Dutch  form  of  the  paper — dated  June  8,  1693 — 
is  cc  Gedrukt  tot  Niewe  Torke,  by  William  Bradfordt, 
cc  Anno  1693"  This  double  language  is  note-worthy 
as  indicating  the  probable  equiponderance  in  New 
York  in  1693  of  Hollanders  and  Englifh;  while  it 
fhows  alfo  either  that  <c  Bradfordt  "  understood  the 
tongue  of  the  firft  fettlers  or  was  able  to  c  compofe '  in 
a  language  he  did  not  comprehend.  The  firft  of  thefe 
originals — the  one,  I  mean,  in  Dutch — Mr.  Brodhead 
difcovered  among  the  Archives' of  that  venerable  Body 
the  Collegiate  Reformed  Dutch  Church  ;  the  other,  in 
Englifh — in  which  form  he  had  conjectured  that  the 
document  was  iflued  fome  time  before  he  found  it 
actually  exifting — was  difcovered  by  him  afterwards  at 
Albany,  whither  he  went  to  verify,  if  poffible,  his  con- 
jecture. And,  now,  what  think  you,  at  this  moment, 
that  it  was  ?  A  circular  letter  from  the  then  Governour 
of  New  York,  Col.  Fletcher,  authorizing  the  collection 
of  money  throughout  the  Provinces  to  mitigate  the 


Commemorative  Addrefs.  67 

fufferings  of  Prifoners  ;  to  redeem  from  flavery 
brave  men,  who  had  been  taken  captive  and  fold  into 
bondage  in  Salee  !  Was  ever  prefs  of  any  land  aufpi- 
cated  by  more  benignant  omens  ?  Who  wonders,  that 
in  this  day  cc  Sanitary  Commiflions  " — cc  Soldiers*  Aid 
Societies,"  and  the  hundred  efforts  to  ameliorate  the 
condition  of  our  noble  invalids  and  prifoners,  draw 
from  every  Journal  of  this  State  enthufiaftick  eulogy 
and  bleffing  ?  The  benignant  fcheme  itfelf  originated, 
it  is  poffible,  with  that  noble  old  Body  in  whofe 
Archives  the  record,  in  the  Dutch  form,  now  alone 
exifts  ;  a  religious  affociation,  the  firft,  I  believe,  of 
all  your  churches  in  point  of  time ;  never  rearward 
of  the  firft  in  any  enterprize  of  piety  and  ufeful- 
nefs.* 

Thus  reads  the  Englifh  duplicate  of  this  paper.  It 
affords  an  interefting  memorial  alike  of  the  primitive 
manners,  and  the  primitive  beneficence  of  the  people 
of  New  York : 

"  Benjamin  Fletcher,  Captain  General  and  Governour-in-Chief  of  the 
"  Province  of  New  York,  Province  of  Pennfylvania,  and  County  of 
"New  Caftle,  and  the  Territories  and  Tracls  of  Land  depending 
"thereon,  in  America. 

"  To  all  Officers  and  Minijlers  Ecclefiafiical  and  Civil  throughout  the 
"  Provinces  and  Territories  under  my  Government. 


w 


CC  "W  T^HEREAS,  I  am  credibly  informed  that  the  fon  of  War- 
ner WefTels,  and  hulhand  of  Antie  Chriftians,  inhabi- 
tants and  failors  of  the  city  of  New  York,  following 
"their  lawful  occupation  were  taken  into  Sallay,  where  they  are  now  in 
"  miferable  flavery  under  the  power  of  the  Infidel,  and  that  their  rela- 


*See  Appendix,  Note  12. 


68 


Commemorative  Addrefs. 


"  tions  are  not  able  to  advance  a  fufficicnt  ranfom  for  their  redemption, 
"  I  have  therefore,  upon  their  application  unto  me,  by  and  with  the  advice 
"  of  the  Council,  out  of  Chriftian  charity,  and  in  commiferation  of  the 
*  grevious  bondage  and  flavery  of  the  faid  perfons,  granted  and  do  by 
"thefe  prefent  grant  licence  or  liberty  to  the  faid  Warner  Wcffels  and 
"  Antie  Chriftians  to  afk  and  receive  the  free  and  charitable  benevolence 
"  of  all  Chriftian  people  under  my  Government,  as  well  at  publick 
"  meetings  as  private  dwelling  houfes.  And  to  avoid  irregularity  in  col- 
"le&ing  the  fame  all  minifters  or  preachers  where  there  are  parifh 
"  churches  or  publick  or  private  meeting  houfes  are  required  to  publifh  a 
"  true  copy  of  this  grant  by  reading  thereof  openly  and  affixing  thereof 
"afterwards  upon  the  door  or  other  publick  place  and  admonifh  the 
"  people  to  Chriftian  charity  and  at  the  next  meeting  (hall  receive  the 
ft  free  offering  and  benevolence  of  the  people  for  the  ufe  aforefaid.  And 
"  where  no  churches  nor  meeting  houfes  are  the  conftables  are  hereby 
"  required  in  their  refpective  precindts,  having  a  true  copy  of  this  grant, 
**  to  go  about  and  colled  the  charity  of  good  Chriftian  people  for  the  ufe 
"  above  faid.  Of  all  which  benevolence  and  charity  the  faid  minifters  or 
"  preachers  and  conftables  are  to  keep  a  diftinci  account,  which  they  are 
"  to  tranfmit  with  what  money  they  fhall  colled  by  virtue  of  this 
"  grant  without  delay,  to  Stephen  Courtland,  Efq.,  Peter  Jacob  Marius, 
"  John  Kerbyll  and  John  Kipp,  who  are  hereby  impowered  to  receive 
"  the  fame  and  tranfmit  the  faid  money  or  fo  much  as  fhall  be  requifite 
"  for  the  redemption  of  the  faid  captives  from  flavery  by  the  beft  and 
"  moft  convenient  means  and  way.  Provided  always  that  in  cafe  there 
"  fhall  be  a  furplufage  above  the  value  of  their  redemption,  or  in  cafe  any 
"  of  the  faid  perfons  fhall  be  dead  or  otherwife  redeemed,  they  the  faid 
"  Stephen  Courtland,  Efq.,  Peter  Jacobs  Marius,  John  Kerbyll  and  John 
"Kip  fhall  be  accountable  to  me,  or  to  the  Governour  and  Commander- 
"  in-Chief  for  the  time  being,  for  the  fum  collected  or  fo  much  thereof 
"  as  is  left  upon  their  or  fome  of  their  redemption  that  it  may  be  fet 
"apart  for  the  like  or  other  pious  ufes  and  for  no  other  ufe  or  intent 
"  whatfoever. 

"Given  under  my  hand  and  feal  at  Fort  William  Henry  the  8th  day 
"of  June,  1693. 

"Ben.  Fletcher. 

"  Printed  by  William  Bradford,  Printer  to  King  William  and  ^ueen  Mary 
"  at  the  City  of  New  York.     Anno  1693." 


Commemorative  Addrefs. 


69 


The  next  paper  printed  here  is  a  Proclamation, 
25th  of  Auguft  of  the  fame  year.  At  this  crifis  of  our 
Country's  hiftory,  when  fo  many  thoughts  are  turned 
to  the  coaft  defences  of  New  York,  and  how  beft  to 
repel  invafion,  if  it  feeks  to  come,  from  this  the  centre 
of  our  Nation's  wealth,  it  will  intereft  us  all  : 

"By  His  Excellency, 

"  Benjamin  Fletcher,  Captain  General  and  Governour-in-Chief  of  their 
"  Majefties'  Province  of  New  York,  Province  of  Pennfylvania,  County 
u  of  New  Caftle,  and  the  Territories  and  Trafts  of  Land  depending 
"  thereon,  in  America,  and  Vice  Admiral  of  the  fame. 

"  A  Proclamation. 
"  Province  of  "New  York,  ss. 

U  ^  TTHEREAS,  there  is  Aftual  War  between  our  Sovereign 
Lord  and  Lady,  William  and  Mary,  by  the  Grace 
▼  ▼  of  God  of  England,  Scotland  France  and  Ireland 
"King  and  Queen,  Defenders  of  the  Faith,  &c,  and  the  French 
"  King.  And  whereas,  I  have  received  information  that  the  French 
"  have  defigned  a  fquadron  of  Ships,  with  Land  Forces,  againft  the 
"  Province  of  New  York.  To  the  end  that  the  inhabitants  thereof 
"  may  be  in  greater  readinefs  to  unite  their  Strength  againft  the  enemy, 
"  I  have  therefore  thought  fit,  and  do  hereby  charge  and  command, 
"  that  the  Inhabitants  of  every  town  throughout  the  Province  do,  at 
"  their  own  charge,  in  the  moft  convenient  place,  forthwith  erect 
"  a  Beacon,  which,  upon  the  appearance  of  any  Squadron  of  Ships  on 
"  the  Coaft  or  Alarm  given,  they  are  to  fet  on  Fire ;  that  all  perfons 
"  may  have  Notice  thereof.  And  I  do  hereby  require  all  the  Inhabi- 
"  tants,  (excepting  thofe  of  the  city  and  county  of  Albany,  and  counties  of 
"  JJlJier  and  Dutches  county?)  that  upon  fuch  alarm  and  firing  of  the  Bea- 
"  con,  they  drive  their  cattle  into  the  woods,  and  immediately  repair  with 
"  their  Arms  and  Ammunition,  to  their  refpe£live  Officers,  who  are  like- 
"  wife  hereby  commanded  to  march  them  with  all  expedition  to  the  city 
"  of  New  York  And  I  expect  a  due  compliance  herein  from  all  Perfons, 
"  as  they  will  anfwer  the  fame  at  their  utmoft  Peril. 


70  Commemorative  AJdrefs. 

"  Given  at  Fort  William  Henry,  the  z$tb  day  of  Auguft,  1693. 
*  Anntq.  Regni  Regis  Et  Regime  Gulielmi  €ff  Maria  Angli*,  tifr., 
"  quinto. 

"  Bex.  Fletcher. 

"  God  Save  King  William  and  Oueen  Man-. 

u  Printed  and  fold  by  William  Bradford,  Printer  to  their  Majefties  King 
«  William  and  $ueen  Mary  at  tie  citj  of  New  York,  1693."* 

We  trull:  in  this  day  to  the  guns  of  Fort  Hamilton 
and  Fort  La  Fayette,  and  to  the  brave  men  who  guard 
thefe  defences.  We  mould  need,  I  fancy,  final]  Pro- 
clamation to  iu  mm  on  millions  to  repel  the  invader, 
from  whatever  land  he  came. 

*  For  a  copy  of  this  document  I  am  indebted  to  E.  B.  O'Callaghan,  M. 
D.,  fo  long  connected  with  the  Department  of  State  at  Albany ;  well  known 
to  the  publick  by  his  antiquarian  labours  and  not  lefs  fo  to  his  friends 
by  the  readineis  with  which  he  puts  the  ftores  of  his  own  learning  at  their 
commnni.  His  labsurs  have  £::eoverei  a  grea:  r.j—ber  c:~  c::£:"al 
papers  by  Bradford,  which  he  has  arranged  in  beautiful  order  at  Albany 
(Secretary  of  State's  Office),  and  thefe  will  afford  to  the  future  biographer 
of  the  firft  printer  one  of  the  beft  iburces  of  information  in  regard  to  him. 
In  fending  me  the  fac-fimile  made  by  his  own  hand  of  the  proclamation 
of  the  25th  of  Auguft,  1693,  Dr.  O'Callaghan  remarks:  "  You  will 
"  notice  fome  of  the  letters  accentuated  thus,  a,  a,  a,  fhewing  that  our 
"  aimiable  friend  Mr.  Bradford  was  '  out  of  forts '  at  the  moment." 
The  fact  is,  that  Bradford's  *  letters "  had  been  feized  in  Pennsylvania  in 
1692  by  a  prevailing  religious  faction  then  there  ;  and  though  ordered  by 
the  Governour  and  Council  to  be  reftored  to  him  there  is  no  evidence  that 
they  were  reftored  in  the  ftate  in  which  they  were  taken ;  or  that,  in 
point  of  fad,  he  ever  got  them  at  all.  He  was  fixed  in  New  York  at 
the  date  of  the  order  of  Reftoration.  The  Proclamation  copied  for  me 
by  Dr.  O'CaDaghan  was  originally  among  the  MSS.  of  the  State  Depart- 
ment, but  by  that  gentleman's  care  was  transferred  for  greater  fecurity  to 
the  State  Library  where  it  now  is.  "  Another  Proclamation,"  writes  Mr. 
Moore  to  me  "of  13  November,  1693,  in  Coll.  MSS.  xxxix,  106, gives 

"  this  fame  imprint,  with  an  addition.    '  Printed  and  Sold,  &c,  &c  

"  €M  the  Sign  of  the  Bible  in  the  city  of  New  York,'  &c." 


Commemorative  Addrefs.  71 

As  early  as  1694  Bradford  printed  the  Laws  of  the 
Province  of  New  York,*  and  in  the  fame  year  the 
Laws  and  Charter  of  this  City.f  He  was  Printer 
both  to  the  State  Government  and  to  the  City  Cor- 
poration. The  people  of  this  noble  City,  you  obferve, 
began  their  very  exiftence  in  the  majefty  of  Law.  In 
the  Law's  obfervance  they  have  continued  that  exift- 
ence, as  well,  I  may  fafely  affirm — as  the  reft  of  us.  In 
the  fame  year  of  1694  Bradford  produced  a  Tract  en- 
titled £C  Seasonable  Confiderations  offered  to  the  good  people 
cc  of  Connecticut."  This  work,  for  which  he  was  paid, 
as  for  an  c  extraordinary  fervice,'  had  reference,  I  pre- 
fume,  to  that  queftion  of  your  eaftern  boundary  which, 
in  early  days,  difturbed  the  peace  of  people  along  the 
left  bank  of  the  river  Hudfon.  I  know  of  no  copy 
of  the  paper  now  exifting.  It  was  replied  to  from 
Connecticut,  and  from  the  reply  a  knowledge  of  its 
contents  can  probably  be  had. 

One  of  the  firft  books  that  has  come  down  to  us, 
printed  in  this  city,  I  here  fhew  to  you.  [Exhibiting 
a  very  little  book  exquifitely  bound.]  And  how 
think  you  it  is  entitled?  "A  letter  of  Advice  to  A 
cc  Young  Gentleman  leaving  the  Univerjity, — concerning 
cc  his  Behaviour  and  Converjation  on  the  World."  You 
fee  that  the  Young  Gentlemen  of  Xew  York,  in  A.  D. 
1696,  when  this  book  was  printed,  needed  very  little 
advice.  As  for  the  Young  Ladies — fince  I  have  never 
heard  that  Bradford  printed  a  companion  to  this  vol- 

*  A  copy  is  in  the  Library  of  Mr.  Lenox,  and  another  in  the  Secre- 
tary of  State's  Office  at  Albany. 

f  25  th  October,  1694.  See  Common  Council  Minutes  ii,  173;  Id. 
1  76. 


J  2  Commemorative  Addrefs. 

ume — it  is  plain  that  the  cafe  was  in  1696,  as  it  is 
now  :  thofe  lovely  creatures,  difcreet,  always,  as  they 
are  charming,  needed — no  advice  at  all. 

The  volume,  which  is  well  written,  is  interefting  as 
the  production  of  an  American  pen.*  The  book,  in 
thofe  days,  made,  I  prefume,  not  unfrequently  a  pretty 
little  prefentto  young  people  from  their  feniors.  The 
copy  which  I  mew  you,  and  which,  like  the  other 
Bradfords  I  exhibit,  belongs  to  the  exquifite  col- 
lection of  Mr.  Menzies,  was  given  in  1701,  as  an  in- 
fcription  in  it  records,  bv  c  Dominie  Clap,'  fome 
venerable  fchoolmafter  of  his  day,  to  a  youth  named 
John  Robinfon ;  a  perfon  whole  maturer  fame,  I  grieve 
to  fay,  has  not  defcended  to  our  times  ;  unlefs,  indeed, 
he  be  that  very  perfon  celebrated  for  the  expedition 
with  which  he  difcharged  every  duty  and  who  is  now 
irreverently  known  only  by  a  J'oubriquet.-\ 

*  An  American  pen  meant,  of  courfe,  as  applicable  to  thofe  days, 
any  pen  actually  ufed  in  America.  The  author,  Richard  Lyons,  was,  I 
believe,  a  perfon  from  the  Britifh  Ifles ;  but  he  had  been,  I  think,  a 
tutor  in  the  Univerfity  of  Cambridge,  Maffachufetts.  I  am  not  certain, 
however,  about  any  of  this. 

•j"  If  ever  we  mould  have  a  Dictionary  of  Fictitious  Perfons,  Strange 
Names,  &c,  I  hope  that  '  Robinson,  Jack'  will  form  one  of  the  titles; 
with  a  hiftory  of  thofe  exploits  as  yet  imperfectly  related  to  the  world, 
bv  which  the  exprelhon  <f  As  quick  as  Jack  Robinfon,"  has  come  to  be 
the  very  expreffion  of  celerity. 

The  copv  exhibited  of  the  little  book  referred  to  in  the  text  belonged 
to  the  late  Mr.  E.  B.  Corwin.  At  the  fale  of  his  beautiful  library  it  fold 
for  $1  2.50.  After  the  honours  of  the  Bradford  Commemoration,  it  would 
have  fold,  I  doubt  not,  for  $ico.  Its  original  price,  I  fuppofe,  might 
have  been  6d.  I  have  already  faid  that  to  Mr.  Corwin's  clofe  obferva- 
tion  we  are  indebted  for  the  difcovery  in  the  Almanack  of  1739,  of  the 
exact  date  of  Bradford's  birth. 


Commemorative  Addrefs.  73 

Although  the  printer's  falary  was  fixed — fir  ft  at  £40, 
and  then  at  £60,  Bradford  was  always  receiving  extra 
allowances.  It  was  then  at  New  York  as  now  at 
Wafhington.  As  long  as  Fletcher  was  in  power,  the 
prefs  was  well  fupported  and  every  thing  was  done 
alike  with  liberality  and  grace.  Thefe  were  generous 
times.    Liften  to  their  record  ! 

"February  15,  1694. 
"  William  Bradford  having  exhibited  an  account  of  fundries  printed 
"  by  direction  of  his  Excellency  and  Council  for  the  ufe  of  the  Government 
"  amounting  to  confiderable  value,  which  cannot  be  fupported  by  his 
"  falary,  the  Board  in  confideration  of  his  extraordinary  fervices,  and 
"  the  printing  of  a  book  entitled  '  ReaJ'onable  Confederations  Offered  to  the 
t(  '  Good  People  of  Connecticut have  corrected  the  faid  account  and  ordered 
u  a  warrant  ifTued  for  the  payment  of  .£30  to  the  faid  William  Brad- 
"  ford."* 

In  1698,  however,  Col.  Fletcher  was  diiplaced. 
His  liberality  in  everyway  was  thought  excemve,  par- 
ticularly in  the  grants  of  land.  The  Earl  of  Bello- 
mont  fucceeded  him  ;  a  reformer,  and  in  favour  of 
retrenchment  of  all  falaries — except  perhaps  his  own. 
Bradford  and  the  new  Governour  foon  got  into  diffi- 
culty. The  firft  intimation  of  it  is  in  a  letter  from 
the  Earl  to  the  Lords  of  Trade,  May  15,  1699.  The 
Earl  writes  that  he  had  fpoken  to  c  The  Printer  '  about 
fome  laws  which  were  faid  to  have  been  incorrectly 
printed;  and  he  told  me,  fays  the  Earl,t  (i  there  was 
<c  no  remedv  for  it,  becaufe  he  had  nobodv  to  correct 
"  the  prefle  at  the  time  he  printed  them."  Bradford, 
it  is  plain,  was  <c  curft  and  brief."    The  Earl  might  go 

*  Council  Minutes  vii,  54. 

|  Documents  Relative  to  the  Colonial  Hiftory  of  New  York  iv,  522. 

K 


74  Commemorative  Addrefs. 

without  the  printing  altogether.  Things  now  come  a 
little  clofer.  About  five  months  later*  the  Earl  had 
been  having  a  conference  with  the  Indians.  It  lafted 
feven  or  eight  days,  cc  the  greater!:  fatigue,"  he  writes,")* 
cc  I  ever  underwent  in  my  whole  life."  <c  I  was  fhut  up," 
he  fays,  "  in  a  clofe  chamber  with  fifty  Sachems,  who 
<c  befides  the  flench  of  Bear's  Greafe,  with  which  they 
plentifully  daubed  themfelves,"  [You  fee  that  Bear's 
Greafe  is  not  a  modern  cofmetick]  "were  continually 
cc  either  fmoking  tobacco  or  drinking  drams  of  rum." 
[Neither  are  thefe,  it  appears,  accomplifhments  of  our 
time  alone.]  The  Earl  was  delirous  to  fend  a  printed 
account  of  thefe  agreeable  conferences,  during  the  feven 
or  eight  days  that  he  was  fhut  up  in  a  clofe  chamber, 
with  fifty  Indians,  plentifully  daubed  with  bear's  greafe, 
fmoking  tobacco  and  drinking  drams  of  rum — to  the 
Ministers  of  State  in  England.  He  thought  it  would 
be  agreeable  reading,  no  doubt,  to  the  Lords  of  Trade, 
and  give  a  good  impreffion  of  his  hair-breadth  'fcapes 
among  <c  the  anthropophagi  and  men  whofe  heads  do 
"grow  beneath  their  fhoulders."  Bradford,  however, 
did  not  confider  thefe  private  diaries  by  the  Earl,  of 
his  feven  or  eight  days'  difcuffions  with  the  fifty 
•Indians  fhut  up  with  him  in  a  clofe  chamber,  plenti- 
fully daubed  with  bear's  greafe,  fmoking  tobacco,  and 
drinking  drams  of  rum — as  among  thofe  things  which 
he  was  bound  to  print,  for  his  £60.  He^  was  ac- 
cordingly not  forthcoming  on  his  Lordfhip's  call.  He 
was  affected  with  what  in  Lord  Chatham's  day  was 
known  among  ariftocratick  ftatefmen  as  cc  a  political  fit 
*  17th  October,  1700. 

\  Documents  Relative  to  the  Colonial  Hiftory  of  New  York  iv,  714. 


Commemorative  Addrefs.  75 

<c  of  the  gout;"  and  in  the  vernacular  of  our  weftern 
people  is,  lefs  elegantly,  defcribed,  I  believe,  as  "play- 
cc  ing  poflum."  On  the  17th  of  O&ober,  1700,  his 
Lordfhip  writes*  to  the  Lords  of  Trade :  C£  Our 
cc  Printer  being  fick,  I  could  not  have  my  private 
"  diary  of  conference  with  the  Indians,  printed."  The 
nature  of  the  malady  appears  on  the  Minutes  of 
Council,  fourteen  days  later.f 

"  3 1  October,  1700. 
"  Whereas,  Mr.  Bradford,  the  Printer,  hath  wholly,  for  thefe  four 
"  months  pall,  neglctted  his  duty  in  printing  the  proclamations  and  con- 
"  ferences  when  his  Lordfhip  was  at  Albany,  his  Excellency  had  therefore 
"  thought  fit  to  difplace  him  from  his  office.  And  Mr.  Abraham  Gouver- 
"  neur  having,  by  reafon  of  the  want  of  faid  Printer,  been  employed  by 
lt  his  Excellency  to  make  feveral  copies  of  his  Lordfhip's  faid  conference 
"  with  the  Indians,  for  his  Lordfhip  to  fend  to  the  Minifters  of  State  in 
"  England,  it  is  therefore  ordered,  that  Mr.  Bradford  be  debarred  from 
"  receiving  any  falary  from  the  five  and  twentieth  day  of  J  une  laft,  and 
ft  that  a  warrant  iffiie  for  the  payment  of  the  fum  of  £3  12s.  to  the  faid 
tf  Mr.  Abraham  Gouverneur  for  his  faid  fervice." 

Notwithftanding  that  Earl  Bellomont  was  the  more 
potential  perfonage  in  fuch  a  bufinefs,  Bradford  gained 
his  cafe  very  foon  by  anticipating  that  excellent  advice 
of  the  Comte  de  Bufly  to  a  friend  who  had  loft  his 
lawfuit :  cc  Confer vez  vous ;  et  croyez  que  fi  vous  Jurvivez 
cc  a  v os  parties  adverfes,  ce  ceront  elles  qui  auront  perdu 
cc  leur proces"  cc  Take  good  care  of  yourfelf,  and  be 
cc  perfuaded  that  if  you  will  only  let  your  adverfary 
cc  die  before  you,  it  is  he,  not  you,  who  has  loft  the 
cc  cafe."  Earl  Bellomont  lived  but  four  months  and 
five  days  after  this  cynical  decree,!  and  as  Bradford 

*  Documents  Relating  to  the  Colonial  Hiltory  of  New  York  iv.  714. 
"("Council  Minutes  viii,  179  (bis.) 

X'  He  died,'  fays  Mr.  Moore  in  writing  to  me,  '  5th  March,  1701.' 


76  Commemorative  Addrefs. 

furvived  him  by  more  than  half  a  century,  he  came  off 
fairly  victor  on  this  fcore. 

The  quarrel  was  fo  obvioufly,  however,  a  financial 
one,  that  on  the  installation  of  Lord  Cornbury,  Brad- 
ford, after  being  debarred  from  them  for  about  nine 
months,  received  again  his  emoluments ;  and  in  No- 
vember, 1702,  having  prefented  a  petition  complain- 
ing of  the  fmallnefs  of  his  falary,  and  the  complaint 
being  confidered  by  the  Governour  and  Council  well 
founded,  £15  were  at  once:!:  added  to  his  annual  Stipend, 
and  the  fame  fixed  at  £75,  nearly  double  the  fum 
originally  promifed. 

From  this  date  Mr.  Bradford's  health,  it  would 
feem,  rapidly  improved,  and  proof-readers  became 
abundant  in  New  York. 

Notwithstanding,  however,  the  liberal  provifion, 
"  it  is  to  be  noted,"  fays  Mr.  Moore  in  writing  to  me, 
"  that  Bradford  worked  for  the  Crown,  very  much,  by 
iC  faith.  Little  money  greeted  his  fight  in  Lord 
cc  Cornbury's  time.  An  Act  of  the  Legiflature,  30th 
<c  October,  1708,  for  c  Raifing  a  Fund  for  defraying 
cc  fome  Extraordinary  Charges  that  have  happened 
<c  in  this  Colony,'  gives  our  friend  two  fums,  one 
<c  of  them  being  no  lefs  than  £252  i8j.  Warrants 
cc  had  been  ifTued  at  various  dates  from  the  2nd  of 
"  February  1703  to  the  nth  of  January  1706,  for 
"  fums  included  in  the  appropriations,  but  which  had  as 
<c  yet  remained  unpaid.*)*    In  all  this,  however,  Brad- 

*  November  23,  1702.  Journals  of  AfTembly ;  Council  Minutes  ix, 
169  ;  Book  of  Warrants,  pajfi?n. 

f  MS.  Ad  in  the  Secretary's  Office  at  Albany  :  Council  Minutes  x,  45 1. 


Commemorative  Addrefs.  jj 

cc  ford  did  but  participate  with  other  publick  fervants 
"  of  Lord  Cornbury's  times.  They  were  paid  only 
£C  after  great  delays.'*  I  mention  farther  on  that 
Bradford  printed  the  fermon  of  Dr.  Sharpe,  Chaplain 
of  the  Queen's  Forces,  preached  at  Trinity  Church 
A.  D.  1706,  on  the  death  of  Lady  Cornbury,  wife 
to  this  dilatory  Earl.  Mr.  Moore's  information  to 
me  that  his  Lordfhip  was  negligent  in  attending  to 
the  publick  creditors,  explains  a  little  incident  which  I 
find  recorded  on  the  fly-leaf  of  Mr.  Menzies'  copy 
of  this  fermon.    Thus  it  reads  : 

"  On  the  death  of  Lady  Cornbury,  who  was  a  young  and  beautiful 
"  woman,  diftinguifhed  too  by  rank,  her  hulband  afked  the  Legiflature  to 
"  allow  her  a  publick  funeral.  That  body,  with  decorous  expreffions  of 
"  regret,  declined  the  Earl's  requeft  ;  but  added  with  emprejfement,  that 
"  they  would,  at  any  time,  be  moft  happy  in  granting  one  to  his  Lord- 
"  fhip." 

The  matter  has  no  fpecial  relation  to  Bradford,  and 
I  mention  the  thing  only  for  the  benefit  of  State 
Treafurers  every  where ;  particularly  of  the  fifcal  head 
of  my  own  State  ;  who,  invoking  the  name  of  c  a  tax,' 
manages  to  cheat  us  every  year  out  of  one  twentieth 
of  the  intereft  which  the  Commonwealth  when  bor- 
rowing our  money  promifed  to  pay  ;*  and  yours,  who 
I  fee  it  ftated  now  pays  your  intereft  in  paper,  inftead 
of  paying  it  as  he  ought  to  do,  in  the  expected  coin. 
Unlefs  both  take  heed  to  their  ways,  Lord  Corn- 
bury  Funerals  plainly  await  them. 

From  an  early  date  we  find  Bradford's  name  in  con- 

*  The  Commonwealth  of  Pennfylvania  promises  by  her  contracts  to 
pay  her  creditors  five  per  cent  per  annum.  Without  having  any  general 
income  tax,  Hie  pays  four  and  three  quarters  per  cent  only ;  '  deducting 
'  and  retaining '  for  herfelf  the  refidue,  or  rather  never  raifing  it  at  all. 


78  Commemorative  Addrefs. 

nexion  with  Trinity  Church.  He  was  firft  chofen  a 
veftryman,  on  Tuefday,  in  Eafter  week,  1703.  c  And 
the  records/  fays  Mr.  G.  M.  Ogden,  Secretary  of  the 
Veftry,  c  fhew  that  he  was  generally  prefent  at  the 
Veftry  Meetings. '*    The  Minutes  run  as  follows  : 

"December  10,  1703. 
"  Ordered,  that  Mr.  Bradford  and  his  wife  do  fit  in  that  half  of  the 
"  pew  which  was  formerly  Mr.  Samuel  Burts',  along  with  Mr.  Dirk  " 
[an  unfortunate  name  for  a  near  neighbour  anywhere  except  at  Church,] 
"  Mr.  Dirk  Vandenburgh,  until  the  faid  Burts'  male  children  are  of  age 
*'  to  ufe  the  fame." 

This  limitation  to  half  a  pew  would  indicate  that  it 
was  about  as  difficult  to  be  accommodated  with  pew 
feats  in  Trinity  in  1703,  when  the  office  was  fimply 
faid,  as  it  is  now  in  1863,  when  c  in  fervice  high  and 
anthems  clear,'  the  c  full  choral '  is  fo  delightfully  and 
fo  reverently  fung.  The  entry,  too,  would  indicate 
that  the  church's  care  for  little  children,  was  lefs 
in  that  day,  than  it  has  been  made  in  ours.  For  my- 
felf  I  know  not  at  what  age  children  are  not  6  of  years' 
to  ufe  their  paternal  pew.*|~ 

*  I  muft  here  exprefs  my  thanks  to  the  Veftry  of  Trinity  Church  and 
to  the  eftimable  gentleman  above  named,  by  whom  extracts  from  the 
Ancient  Minutes  have  been  furnifhed  to  me,  under  refolutions  of  the 
corporation,  with  every  courteous  and  every  obliging  offer. 

"  Under  the  Miniftry  Act  of  1693,"  writes  Mr.  Moore  tome,  "  there 
"  was  a  Veftry  of  the  City  of  New  York  feveral  years  before  the  eftablilh- 
"  ment  of  Trinity  Church,  and  this  organization  continued  down  to  the 
"  Revolution.    Of  this  body  Bradford  was  a  Veftryman  in  the  year 

"1704." 

f  My  refpedted  friend  the  Revd  Dr.  Ogilby,  who  did  excellent  reli- 
gious fervice,  as  I  can  teftify,  at  Burlington,  New  Jerfey,  and  at  Phila- 
delphia, in  my  own  State,  and  who  now  fo  ufefully  occupies  one  of  the 
flails  of  Trinity,  fuggefts,  I  am  told,  in  defence  of  his  church  in  ancient 


Commemorative  Addrefs.  79 

"April  19,  1704. 
"  Ordered,  that  Mr.  Honan  and  Mr.  Bradford  colled  the  contribu- 
"  tions  of  the  Church  for  two  months,  and  Mr.  To  thill  in  the  Gallery, 
"  for  the  fame  time." 

Here  you  fee  that  in  1704,  two  veftrymen  made  the 
collections  in  the  nave  and  aifles  of  Trinity,  which 
now,  I  think,  ufually  engage  four  or  fix.  Whether 
the  money  in  this  day  is  fo  much  more  generally  forth- 
coming than  it  was  in  that,  to  detain  the  Queftmen, 
or  whether  the  Queftmen  moved  with  more  activity 
then  than  now,  while  the  charming  interludes  of  Mr. 
Cutler  touch  every  heart  and  make  delays  delightful, 
I  muft  refer  it  to  the  Accounting  Warden  to  difcover. 

"June  14,  1704. 

"  Ordered,  Mr.  Bradford  be  paid  for  a  book  to  enter  the  records  of 
"  Marriages  and  Baptifms,  and  for  printing  two  laws  for  the  Church — 
"  £4  4*" 

In  thofe  days,  as  in  thefe,  it  is  obvious  that  old 
Trinity  was  expected  to  pay  corporation  prices  for 
all  forts  of  fervices. 

"July  24,  1704. 

"  Mr.  Bradford  prefented  an  account  of  £5  2s.  1  \d.  collected  in  the 
"  body  of  the  Church  the  two  Sundays  Mr.  Honan  was  abfent ;  being 
"  Whitfunday  laft  and  the  23d  inft." 

A  very  fair  collection  for  the  hot  month  of  July  ! 
though  I  fuppofe  that  Trinity  Church  was  less  de- 
pleted in  thofe  fummers  by  Saratoga  and  Newport 

times,  that  Mr.  Burts'  "  male  children  "  were  not  put  out  of  church  at  all, 
but  with  their  fillers,  (not  mentioned  in  the  entry),  were  provided  with 
feats  better  adapted  to  their  tender  years  among  the  Sunday  School  fchol- 
ars.  I  am  happy,  both  for  the  fake  of  old  Trinity  and  of  Mr.  Bradford 
and  his  wife,  whofe  fouls  would  not  have  been  profited  by  fitting,  under 
the  apparent  circumftances,  "  in  that  half  of  the  pew  which  was  for- 
"  merly  Mr.  Samuel  Burts  " — to  accept  fo  felicitous  a  view  of  the  cafe. 


80  Commemorative  Addrefs. 

than  Trinity  Chapel  will,  in  two  months,  be  in  ours. 
The  collection,  you  fee,  was  made  by  Mr.  Bradford 
alone.  Mr.  Honan  "was  abfent,"  the  record  fays, 
and  cc  for  two  Sundays "  looking  exceedingly  as  if 
c  Mr.  Honan  '  had  run  off  from  town,  Trinity  Church 
and  all,  to  the  fprings  or  fea  more — to  fee  fome  hand- 
fome  lady  no  doubt ;  that's  what  we  all  go  there  for, 
I  fufpect,  if  we  only  told  the  truth.  I  know  not  how 
it  is  at  prefent  with  the  churches  in  New  York,  but 
unlefs  the  congregations  here  are  more  ready  to  give 
and  glad  to  distribute  than  fome  I  know  of  elfewhere, 
the  Sunday  collections  were  better  a  hundred  and  fifty 
years  ago  than  now. 

Here  comes  a  formidable  entry,  to  be  fure  !  It  is 
of  the  fame  date,  July  24,  1704. 

"  Ordered,  that  Captain  Lurting,"  [Lurting  was  an  important  perfon, 
afterwards  Mayor  of  the  City,]  "  Captain  Tothill,"  [another  of  the 
Oueen's  officers,  and  not  to  be  defpifed,]  "  Mr.  Bradford  and  Mr. 
"  Honan,"  [Mr.  Honan  you  fee  had  returned  to  town — he  had  feen  the 
lady,  no  doubt.  What  he  faid  to  her  I  don't  know  :  You  ladies  know 
what  gentlemen  generally  fay  to  you  when  you  go  to  Saratoga  and  New- 
port,] "  be  appointed  to  importune  all  strangers'  benevolence  towards 
"  the  church  and  fteeple." 

A  comfortable  office,  this,  it  muft  have  been,  for  a  vef- 
tryman  of  Trinity,  to  importune  all  Grangers  arriving  in 
New  York  to  help  build  a  church  and  fteeple!  although 
really  the  way  in  which  Cologne  is  at  this  moment  build- 
ing her  Beauty  of  the  World  as  refpects  travellers  in 
Rhenifh  PrufTia.  Few  perfons  come  near  the  Cathedral 
without  being  very  civilly  importuned.  I  never  knew 
till  now,  however,  with  regard  to  Trinity,  how  good 
a  right  perfons  every  where  who  need  money  to  build 
<ca  church  and  fteeple/'  have  to  importune  her  be- 


Commemorative  Addrefs.  81 

yond  all  churches  of  the  earth  ;  and  why  ftrangers  may 
properly  look  at  Mr.  Upjohn's  beauteous  ftructure 
above  the  other  lions  of  New  York.  The  next  time 
I  am  waited  upon  in  Philadelphia — as  I  am  much 
oftener  than  is  of  the  leaft  benefit  to  the  vifitor  himfelf, 
though,  of  courfe,  not  half  fo  often  as  is  agreeable 
to  me — by  any  poor  Rector — a  ftranger — begging 
for  his  parifti,  I  Ihall  know  exactly  where,  of  right, 
to  fend  him.  Indeed,  I  almoft  fear  that  hereafter, 
when  I  go  myfelf  to  Trinity,  unlefs  it  is  in  time  of 
Service,  I  mail,  as  a  ftranger  in  New  York,  be  a  little 
bit  difpofed  to  look  with  condefcenfion  even  on 
the  Reverend  Rector  Dr.  Dix  himfelf.  I  alk  his  pardon 
in  advance  if  I  fhall  commit  fo  great  an  impropriety. 

How  long  Mr.  Bradford  continued  to  exercife  his 
gifts  of  'importunity'  upon  ftrangers,  I  cannot  dif- 
cover ;  nor  with  what  fuccefs.  I  rather  think  that  he 
may  have  done  his  (hare  of  the  committee  work,  as 
gentlemen  of  refined  fenfibilities  not  unfrequently  do 
theirs  in  like  cafes,  and  have  paid  the  money  out  of  his 
own  purfe.  The  only  record  I  can  find  is  one  of  May 
171 1,  where  it  is  ftated  that  Mr.  Bradford  had,  himfelf, 
given  eighteen  millings  towards  finishing  the  fteeple. 

In  1704,  or  foon  afterwards,  Bradford  achieved  an 
enterprife  more  germain  to  our  general  fubject.  The 
Church  Records  are  as  follows  : 

"  Auguft  23d,  1704. 
"  Ordered  that  the  Church  Wardens  do  lend  Mr.  Bradford  Thirty  or 
"  Forty  Pounds  for  fix  months,  on  fecurity,  without  intereft,  for  pur- 
"  chafing  paper  to  print  Comon  Prayer  Books." 

The  Rev.  John  Sharpe,  D.  D.,  Chaplain  of  the 
Queen's  Forces  at  the  Fort  and  as  fuch  an  Afliftant 
L 


82  Co?nmemorative  Addrefs. 

Minifter  of  the  Church, — whofe  Sermon  on  the  death 
of  Lady  Cornbury,  printed  by  Bradford,  and  already 
referred  to,*  I  have  the  honour  here  to  mow  you, 
[Exhibiting  an  elegantlybound  volume  of  16  pages] 
became  the  fecurity.  The  Prayer  Book  was  published, 
but  the  Church  of  England,  I  fuppofe,  in  that  day  being 
feeble  in  the  Colonies,  and  moft  perfons  then,  as  now, 
having  a  tafte  for  foreign  c  articles '  in  preference  to  as 
ufeful  domeftick  ones,  it  did  not  remunerate  the  Pub- 
lifher.  Mr.  Bradford  having  given  a  bond  for  intereft 
due  after  fix  months  on  the  money  which  had  been  lent 
to^him,  we  find,  at  a  later  date,  the  following  entry : 

"April  26,  171 1. 
In  confideration  of  the  great  lofs  he  has  fuftained  in  print- 
"  ing  the  Common  Prayer  and  New  Verfion  of  the  Pfalms,  Ordered 
"  that  the  Church  Wardens  deliver  to  Mr.  Bradford  his  faid  Bond." 

We  thus  fee  that  the  munificence  which  has  diftin- 
guifhed  the  Corporation  of  Trinity  Church,  New  York, 
in  later  days,  making  her,  in  the  New  World,  a  Mater 
Urbis  et  Orbis,  as  much  as  San  Giovanne  Laterano  is  in 
the  Old,  began  in  her  earlier!:  days  with  acts  of  con- 
fiderate  juftice.  Bibliologically,  the  fact  is  revealed  by 
thefe  minutes — one  of  which,  otherwife,  I  think  no 
publick  proof  furvives — that  the  firft  edition  of  the 
Book  of  Common  Prayer  ever  actually  printed  in 
America  was  printed  under  the  aufpices  of  Trinity 
Church,  by  one  of  her  Veftrymen;  an  affiftant  Minifter 
of  the  Church,  being  himfelf  the  furety  for  the  fidelity 
of  the  Printer's  contracts.*)" 

*  Supra,  p.  77. 

*)*  I  know  not  if  any  copy  of  this  Edith  Princeps  Americana  of  a  book 
which  now  covers  a  continent  in  numberlefs  forms,  has  furvived  its  century 
and  fixty  years.    I  count.it  a  fingular  proof  of  its  rarity  that  Mr.  Men- 


Commemorative  Addrefs.  83 

This  firft  American  edition  of  the  Prayer  Book,  it 
feems,  had  c  the  new  verfion  of  the  Pfalms.'  Whether 
this  diftinction  had  any  thing  to  do  with  the  lofs  which 
Bradford  encountered  in  giving  it  to  the  publick,  the 
records  of  Trinity,  fo  far  as  I  have  feen  them,  do  not 
mew  us.  It  is  poflible  enough  that  one  hundred  and 
fifty  years  ago,  the  parifhioners  of  fo  confervative 
a  fold  as  her's  preferred  the  venerable  fathers  of 
pfalmody,  Sternhold  and  Hopkins,  to  Meflrs.  Tate 
and  Brady,  then  coming  above  the  poetical  horizon, 
and  regarded  in  England  as  fomething  quite  fupreme.* 
Confecrated  as  the  elder  verfions  may  have  been  by 
early  recollections  c  at  home;'  fung  as  they  had  heard 
them  by  ( friends  in  youth/  and  taught,  as  poflibly 
they  may  have  been,  by  parental  lips  to  their  own  in- 
fant tongues,  they  were  perhaps  reluctant  to  part  with 
the  time-honoured  ftanzas.  Nothing,  to  them,  feemed 
an  improvement  on  the  venerable  verfes : 

u  As  owl  in  ivy  bum 

"  Such  a  one  Lord,  was  I." 

And  on  that  other  excellent  couplet,  illuftration  of  a 
clafs  : 

"  The  Lord  will  come  and  he  will  not 
"  Keep  lilence  but  fpeak  out." 

Lefs  changes  than  that  which  Bradford  here  at- 
tempted for  the  better,  have  tolled  the  profits  of  a 
publifher ;  much  lefs  ones  upfet  the  peace  of  parifhes. 

zies,  my  greateft  fource  of  information  on  the  Bradford  bibliology,  had 
never,  until  I  mewed  him  the  records  of  Trinity,  heard  of  its  exiftence. 
I  cannot  tell  exactly  when  it  iffued  ;  but  prior  certainly  to  1 7 1 4.  . 

*  See  the  Bifhop  of  London's  recommendation  of  the  New  Verfion. 
If  I  remember,  Tate  was  Poet  Laureat. 


84  Commemorative  Addrefs. 

Bradford,  I  may  add,  would  feem  to  have  been  an 
amateur  of  facred  poetry,  or  perhaps  a  curiofo.  I  have 
feen  a  letter  written  by  him  in  extreme  old  age,  afking 
a  defcendant  to  fend  him  a  copy  of  Dr.  Watts's  newly 
publifhed  Pfalms  and  Hymns.  I  prefume  that  after 
reading  them  the  good  old  gentleman  was  fatisfled  that 
even  the  excellent  non-conformift  of  Stoke-Newington 
could  make  no  improvement  on  the  Pfalter  "as  God 
and  David  wrote  it."  I  mould  have  no  objection  if 
the  Chriftian  world  were  of  the  fame  advice  to-day. 

While  thus  himfelf  engaged  in  the  City  of  New 
York,  Bradford  fought  to  maintain  thofe  wider  rela- 
tions which  as  we  have  feen  from  George  Fox's  letter 
had  been  in  his  mind  from  an  early  date.  His  fon, 
Andrew,  having  come  to  man's  eftate,  he  now  fought 
to  eftablifh  him  in  fome  other  place  where  he  might 
anticipate  that  rival  enterprife  which  the  growing  pros- 
perity of  the  Colonies  feemed  fo  likely  every  where  to 
invite.  The  Proceedings  of  the  General  AfTembly  at 
Newport,  Rhode  Ifland,'  prefent  us  the  negociation.:;: 

"22  March,  1709. 

"Voted,  and  it  is  further  Enacted  that  whereas  there  is  one  Brad- 
"  ford,  fon  to  Bradford  the  Printer  of  New  York,  who  hath  offered 
"  himfelf  to  fet  up  a  Printing  Prefs  in  this  place,  and  to  find  paper  and 
"  print  all  things  that  may  relate  to  the  Colony  and  Government  for  £50 
"  a  year,  if  it  be  but  for  one  year  or  two : 

"  The  AfTembly  confidering  the  premifes,  are  upon  conditions  afore- 
<lfaid,  willing  to  allow  him  £50  for  one  year,  and  fo  yearly,  if  the 
"  Colony  fee  good  to  improve  him." 

Old  Mr.  Bradford  probably  thought  the  c  conditions 
c  aforefaid ' — which  bound  his  fon  c  to  find  paper  and 
1  print  all  things  that  might  relate  to  the  Colony  and 

*  Colonial  Records  of  Rhode  IJland  iii,  65. 


Commemorative  Addrefs.  85 

c  Government  for  £50  a  year/ — rather  fharp  condi- 
tions, and  declined  them.:;: 

He  eftablifhed  his  fon  finally  in  Philadelphia  in 
1712  ;  making  him  his  own  partner.  This  prefs  thus 
eftablifhed  for  Bradford's  fon,  continued  in  his  family, 
this  fon,  a  grandfon  (a  nephew  of  the  laft),  a  great 
grandfon,  and  two  great-great-grandfons — without  in- 
teruption  (except  during  the  occupancy  of  our  city  by 
the  Britilh  in  1777)  until  the  year  1825. 

The  office  of  Printer  to  the  Crown  for  this  Pro- 
vince, which  Bradford  received  from  Governour  Flet- 
cher, he  held  under  William  and  Mary,  Queen  Anne, 
George  I.,  and  George  II.;  a  longer  term  than  any 
individual  before  or  afterwards  held  the  fame  poft  in 
thefe  Colonies. 

He  was  appointed  by  the  Legiflature  in  1709  to  the 
refponiible  office  of  publilhing  all  the  Acts  of  Aflem- 
bly  at  that  time  in  force  ;  a  truft  which  indicates  great 
confidence  in  his  capacity.  Notwithftanding  the 
labour  which  fuch  a  tafk  impofed  the  digeft  was  iffiued 
from  the  prefs  within  the  year.  It  is  ftill  a  work  of 
authority,  and  as  I  have  obferved  in  reading  your  Law 
Reports — in  times  when  I  ufed  to  read  them — is  fre- 
quently appealed  to  in  your  courts  upon  queftions 
relating  to  the  early  jurifprudence  of  New  York.  It 
muft  always  indeed  remain  of  value,  as  in  it  are  found 
the  only  exifting  records  of  much  of  the  early  Legifla- 
tion  of  this  State.  From  original  papers  of  Bradford 
now  arranged  by  Dr.  O'Callaghan's  care  in  the  Secretary 

*  The  Province  of  New  York  was  more  liberal !  Frequent  warrants 
are  found  to  pay  Bradford  for  paper  got  for  the  ufe  of  the  AlTembly  : 
one  of  £4  ijs.  6d.  on  the  15  May,  1699,  Council  Minutes  viii,  no. 


86  Commemorative  Addrefs. 

of  State's  Office  at  Albany,  I  infer  that  Bradford  was 
not  only  the  publifher  of  this  work  but  the  originator 
and  compiler  of  it  alfo.  The  idea,  plan  and  execution 
— legal,  literary  and  typographical — the  whole  work,  in 
fhort,  was  his;  and  taken  in  connexion  with  his  enter- 
prize  of  the  Bible  and  Prayer-Book,  his  paper-making 
operations,  his  building  of  wharves,  engraving  of  maps, 
and  editing  and  printing  of  a  newfpaper  at  the  age  of 
eighty,  mew  a  remarkable  vigour  and  verfatility  of  talent. 

I  have  mentioned  that  Bradford  was  the  founder,  in 
part,  of  the  firft  paper-mill  ever  eftablifhed  on  this 
Continent.  In  1724,  being  then  ftxty-one  years  old, 
and  contemplating,  no  doubt,  the  eftablifhment  which 
he  perfected  in  the  next  year,  of  a  newfpaper  in  this 
city,  he  fought  to  acquire  from  the  Legiilature  of  this 
Province  a  monopoly  of  the  new  art,  which  he  pro- 
pofed  to  introduce  here.  The  project  was  favourably 
received,  and  pafTed  the  Aflembly,  the  popular  branch 
of  the  Legiilature.  It  feemed,  too,  to  be  in  a  fair 
way  of  fuccefsful  accomplifhment  entirely,  but  on  a 
final  reading  of  the  Bill  in  Council,  as  the  Provincial 
minutes  mow — on  the  16  July — by  a  fmall  majority 
perhaps — it  was  carried  in  the  negative;  the  wrong 
way  for  the  enterprizing  defign  of  Mr.  Bradford. 

In  the  next  year,  1725,  and  being  then  fixty-two 
years  old,  Bradford  eftablifhed  in  this  city  the  (irft 
newfpaper  ever  known  here,  and  his  fon  Andrew  hav- 
ing previoufly  eftablifhed  the  American  Weekly  Mercury 
in  Philadelphia  and  become  Poft-Mafter  there — a 
matter  which  was  valuable  in  thofe  days — as  I  fuppofe 
it  might  be  in  thefe  to  the  publifher  of  any  journal — 
he  purchafed  in  1728  a  large  paper  factory  at  Eliza- 


Commemorative  Addrefs.  87 

bethtown,  New  Jerfey.  He  thus  rendered  his  own 
eftablimment  and  his  fon's  in  Philadelphia  independent 
of  the  paper  manufacturers  of  Great  Britain.  In  the 
tariff  State  of  Pennfylvania,  we  count  this  quite  a 
feather  in  his  cap.  The  New  York  Gazette,  of  which 
I  exhibit  to  you  a  volume,  appeared  but  once  a  week 
— on  Mondays— and  from  1725  till  1733  was  the  only 
paper  in  New  York.  You  fee  the  flze  of  it.  How 
think  you  the  good  people  of  this  State  would  now 
enjoy  one  newfpaper,  of  this  fize,  once  a  week?  It 
would  be  as  bad  as  a  blockade — I  was  going  to  fay ; 
but  not  having  lately  come  from  Charleston,  might 
fpeak  with  infufficient  knowledge  of  the  practical  mean- 
ing of  that  term. 

I  take  leave  to  offer  you  a  little  news  from  this 
Journal.  The  Reporters  of  the  Prefs,  who  are  oblig- 
ing enough  to  be  prefent  at  the  foot  of  the  ftage,  will 
not  fail,  I  truft,  to  give  it  to  the  publick  in  their  iffue 
of  to-morrow  morning  as  cc  The  very  Lateft  from  Eu- 
ccrope,"  and  as  cc  Highly  Interesting."* 

"London,  May  14,  1726.  The  ftage  coaches  near  Bath  were  ftopt 
"  laft  Thurfday  by  one  highwayman,  who  took  what  money  they  gave 
"  him;  which  was  about  £10.  He  (aid  it  was  too  little;  but  he  put  it 
"  up,  faying  he  had  a  wife  and  five  children,  and  thought  it  better  to 
"  coiled:  charity  for  them  than  to  lie  in  p^ifon  for  debt." 

"  We  hear  his  Grace,  the  Duke  of  Manchefter,  will  be  made  Captain 
"  of  the  Band  of  Gentleman  Penfioners,  in  the  room  of  the  late  Duke  of 
"  St.  Albans." 

We  next  have  an  item  of  intelligence  which  would 

*  The  arrangements  for  the  Reporters  in  the  Hall  of  the  Union  are 
very  good.  They  fit  almoft  at  the^feet  of  the  Speaker ;  but  in  fuch  a 
way  that  he  fcarcely  fees  what  they  are  doing;  while  they  hear  him 
well,  and  can  receive  from  him,  without  an  effort,  any  note  or  document 
which  he  may  defire  to  give  them. 


88 


Commemorative  Addrefs 


rather  indicate  that  our  French  friends  were  far  ahead 
of  us  in  the  ufe  of  the  fteam-engine  as  a  means  of  fup- 
plying  cities  with  water;  and  indeed  that  they  applied 
it  to  that  purpofe  before  the  fteam-engine  was  much 
known  at  all. 

"Paris,  May  18,  1726.  On  the  nth,  the  Royal  Academy  of 
"  Sciences  went  to  Pafly  to  view  the  machine  that  has  been  made  there 
"  for  raifing  of  water  by  the  help  of  fire.  The  experiment  was  made 
"  before  them  and  fucceeded  perfectly  well.  In  twenty-four  hours'  time, 
"  it  will  raife  20,925  hoglheads  of  water." 

Here  is  a  record  in  regard  to  a  royal  perfonage  of 
France,  which  readily  lhews  why  he  may  have  been  fo 
much  better  liked  as  a  youth  than  he  was  in  his  later 
life  ! 

"  London,  November  17,  1726.  Letters  from  Paris  give  us,  with 
"  great  triumph,  the  following  inftance  of  their  young  monarch's  good 
"  nature,  who  being  one  day  at  table  after  he  had  been  overturned  in  his 
"  chaife,  the  mafter  of  the  horfe  afked  him  *  what  he  would  pleafe  to 
"  '  have  done  with  the  coachman  that  over-turned  him.'  '  Why?  faid 
"  the  king,  with  a  fweetnefs  of  temper  which  chatmed  all  the  court,  '  let 
"  '  him  drive  me  again  to-morrow?  " 

In  France  as  in  England,  the  fcience  of  Medical 
Surgery  appears  to  have  been  in  1726  behind  its  then 
American  advancement.    Here  is  the  record  ! 

"Paris,  November  23,  1726.  The  king,  who  was  to  have  touched 
"  the  difeafed  this  month,  has  ptit  ofF  that  ceremony  till  the  24th.  On 
"  the  17th  his  Majefty  had  a  flight  indifpofition,  which  went  off  again 
"  and  did  not  hinder  him  from  going  abroad  the  next  day." 

Next  is  a  fingular  entry  !  The  only  thought  fug- 
gefted  by  the  death  of  Sir  Ifaac  Newton  is  that  an  office 
to  which  a  Jalary  of  £500  was  annexed  has  become  vacant  I 
Certainly  we  were  ftill  eminently  Englifh. 

"London,  March  18,  1727.    Yefterday  morning,  died,  aged  eighty- 


Commemorative  Addrefs.  89 

"  five,  Sir  Ifaac  Newton,  Kt.,  Mailer  of  his  Majefty's  Mint  at  the  Tower, 
"  to  which  place  is  annexed  a  /alary  of  £500  per  annum  ;  and  Prefident 
"  of  the  Royal  Society." 

Here  is  an  item  or  two  of  domeftick  intelligence. 

"Philadelphia,  June  27,  1726.  A  floop  arrived  here  on  Sunday 
"  laft  from  Rhode  Ifland,  who  faw  the  pirate  '  Snow,'  in  a  calm,  off 
ee  Block  Ifland,  at  a  great  diftance ;  who  fent  out  their  boat  full  of  hands 
"  with  a  black  flag.  They  came  within  piftol-lhot  of  the  floop;  but  the 
"  floop  bringing  fome  quarter-deck  guns  to  fire  upon  them,  they  made 
"  off  again." 

"New  York,  March  13,  1726.  Publick  notice  is  hereby  given  that 
"  at  Philadelphia  they  have  found  out  fome  twelve  fhilling  bills  that  are 
"  counterfeit.  They  are  newly  printed  and  very  artfully  figned.  In  the 
"  flourifh  on  the  top  of  the  bill,  there  is  the  reprefentation  of  a  bajket ; 
"  which  in  the  counterfeit  is  much  finer  than  in  the  true  bills,  and  the 
"  great      is  much  plainer  than  in  the  true  bills." 

"  New  York,  Jpril  10,  1727.  This  is  to  give  notice  to  all  gentlemen 
"  and  others,  that  a  Lottery  is  to  be  drawn  at  Mr.  John  Stevens'  in 
"  Perth  Amboy,  for  501/.  of  filver  and  gold  work,  wrought  by  Simeon 
"  Soumain,  of  New  York,  Goldfmith  ;  all  of  the  newejl  fajhion. 

"  Tickets  are  given  out  at  6s.  New  York  money,  or  js.  Jerfey  money, 
"  for  each  ticket,  at  the  houfe  of  Mr.  John  Stevens,  in  Amboy ;  at  Mr. 
*'  Andrew  Bradford's,  in  Philadelphia ;  at  Mr.  Lewis  Carees',  in  Allen- 
"  town ;  at  Mr.  Samuel  Clewe's,  in  Jamaica,  Long  Ifland ;  and  at 
"  Simeon  Soumain's,  in  the  city  of  New  York,  at  which  laft  place  the 
"goods  are  to  be  feen." 

Another  hiftorical  monument,  of  about  this  date,* 
from  Bradford's  prefs,  is  a  well  known  Plan  of  the 
City  of  New  York,  from  actual  furvey  by  Lyne.  It 
is  curious  as  being  an  engraved  map  ;  from  copper- 
plate undoubtedly ;  one  of  the  earlieft  fpecimens  of 
copper-plate  engraving — perhaps  the  earlieft  on  fo 
large  a  fcale— on  this  Continent.    I  exhibit  you  a 

*  Fac  Similes  bear  the  date  of  1728;  but  thefe  figures,  I  believe,  are 
not  on  the  original. 

M 


90  Commemorative  Addrefs. 

copy.  [Map  exhibited.]  On  this  map  a  Rope-walk 
occupies  Broadway  above  the  Aftor  Houfe;  Broad- 
way being  in  fact  an  open  flreet  only  from  the  Battery 
to  that  point ;  and  the  Bowery  from  its  junction  with 
Broadway  at  the  extremity  of  the  Park,  being  ftill  indi- 
cated as  the  High  Road  to  Bofton.  Many  a  rogue 
has  found  it  the  high  road  to  a  worfe  place — called  the 
Tombs. 

The  value  of  this  map  has  frequently  been  attefted 
in  our  own  times.  The  Corporation  of  New  York 
had  it  printed  in  fac-fimile  in  1836  to  illuftrate  a  great 
queftion  connected  with  its  line  of  Weftern  Piers,  and 
thirteen  years  later  the  Congrefs  of  the  United  States 
thought  it  worthy  of  perpetuation  as  a  national  docu- 
ment. The  copy  I  fhew  you  is  one  of  the  reproduc- 
tions ordered  in  1849  by  that  body.*  In  the  great  fuit 
of  Bogardus  v.  'Trinity  Church^  Vice  Chancellor  San- 
ford  relied  on  it  when  deciding  the  cafe  in  favour  of 
that  venerable  corporation. 

Little  did  Bradford  fancy  in  1728,  that  his  identical 
labour  would  be  invoked  one  hundred  and  fixteen  years 
after  he  had  toiled  at  it,  in  defence  of  the  rights  of  one 
of  the  nobleft  ecclefiaflical  foundations  of  our  land  ; 
of  that  fame  c  Old  Trinity  '  wherein  he  long  devoutly 
worfhipped  ;  of  whofe  councils  he  was  a  faithful  mem- 
ber, and  within  whofe  facred  precincts  his  own  duft 
with  that  of  her  who  had  been  the  partner  of  his  love, 
would  years  afterwards  be  gathered  in  honoured  age  to 

*  Report  of  the  Secretary  of  the  Treafury  on  the  Warchoufing  Syftem, 
February  22a1,  1849.  (Senate  Documents  7,0th  Congrefs,  22a1  Seffiony 
Doc.  No.  32.) 

f  4  Sanford's  Chancery  Reports,  475. 


Commemorative  Addrefs.  91 

await  the  voice  of  the  Archangel  and  the  morning  of 
the  Refurreclion  with  its  awakening  and  glorifying 
power  ! 

Bradford  edited  his  own  paper  until  he  was  eighty 
years  old;  when  retiring  from  bufinefs,  he  transferred 
his  fubfcription  lift  to  James  Parker,  who  after  1743, 
conducted  the  journal. 

It  will  ever  remain  to  the  honour  of  the  Middle 
Provinces  that  the  founders  of  their  prefs  received 
all  the  patronage  which  even  Letters  mould  enjoy. 
Bradford's  eafy  condition  and  that  of  his  fon  is  referred 
to  in  1734  by  Keimer  in  fome  verfes,  more  inftruclive 
hiftorically  than  poetically  elegant,  which  he  addrefTed 
to  his  patrons  in  Barbadoes,  where  he  went  from  Phi- 
ladelphia and  was  editing  a  paper  which,  from  his  own 
account,  feems  to  have  badly  repaid  him  : 

"  In  Penn's  wooden  country  Type  feels  no  difaiter, 

"  The  Printers  grow  rich  :  One  is  made  their  Poft-Malter, 

"  His  father,  a  printer,  is  paid  for  his  work 

"  And  wallows  in  plenty  juft  now  in  New  York. 

"  Though  quite  paft  his  labour  and  old  as  my  Grannum, 

"  The  Government  pays  him  pounds  forty  per  annum  ; 

"  But  alas !  your  poor  typo  prints  no  figure  like  Nullo  ; 

"  Curfed,  cheated,  abufed  by  each  pitiful  fellow. 

"  Though  working  like  flave,  with  zeal  and  true  courage, 

"  He  can  fcarce  get,  as  yet,  fait  to  his  porridge. 

From  an  early  date,  fecretly  perhaps  with  us,  Brad- 
ford fought  pofTeffion,  by  different  eftablifhments,  of 
the  two  great  cities  of  Philadelphia  and  New  York, 
and,  with  the  forecaft  which  marked  his  underftanding, 
appears  to  have  feen  that,  pofferTed  of  thefe  command- 
ing pofts,  he  would  reduce  New  Jerfey  alfo  into  the 
lift  of  his  dependencies.     His  projects  were  juftified 


92  Commemorative  Addrefs. 

by  the  event.  The  earlieft  volume  of  the  Laws  of 
New  Jerfey,  bearing  date  of  1709,  has  his  imprint, 
under  the  Royal  Arms,  as  "  Printer  to  the  Queen  s  moji 
tc  Excellent  Majejly  for  the  Province  of  New  Jerfey 
and,  for  much  of  a  century  afterwards,  did  this  man, 
either  by  himfelf,  his  fon,  or  his  grandfon,  entirely 
command,  as  Royal  Printer,  the  publick  prefs  in  the 
three  States  of  New  York,  Pennfylvania  and  New 
Jerfey,  then  the  moft  influential  portion  of  America. 

I  have  the  honour  here  to  fhew  you  a  volume 
printed  by  William  Bradford  whom  we  commemorate, 
Printer  to  King  William  and  Queen  Mary,  another  by 
Andrew  Bradford,  Printer  to  the  Province  of  Penn- 
fylvania, and  a  third  by  William  Bradford — grandfon 
to  the  firft  William- — Printer  to  the  Province  of  New 
Jerfey.  [The  fpeaker  here  exhibited  William  Brad- 
ford's Laws  of  New  York  of  1 709  ;  Andrew  Bradford's 
Laws  of  Pennfylvania  of  I7i4and  1728,  and  William 
Bradford,  the  2nd's,  Laws  of  New  Jerfey  by  Learning 
and  Spicer  (1753);  all  Folios,  elegantly  bound.] 
Father,  fon  and  grandfon,  printers,  every  one  of  them, 
to  Provinces  or  Crowns  !  Where  or  when  did  the 
printers'  calling  ever  rife  to  greater  worldly  pride  ? 

With  the  diflblution,  in  this  land,  of  that  Royal 
Government  which  he  and  his  defcendants  in  the  firft 
and  fecond  generation  had  ferved  for  near  a  century, 
the  name  of  William  Bradford  appears  with  a  higher 
and  brighter  and  more  honourable  luftre  in  the  perfon 
of  his  great-grandfon,   Attorney-General    of  thefe 

*  A  copy  (fmall  folio)  of  this  rare  volume  is  in  the  poflcflion  of  Mr. 
H.  C.  Murphy,  of  Brooklyn,  N.  Y.  Bradford  printed  the  New  Jerfey 
Laws  in  1 71 7  alfo. 


Commemorative  Addrefs.  93 

United  States  of  America  under  their  firft  Administra- 
tion ;  the  friend,  trufted  and  confiding,  of  your  own 
patriotick  Hamilton,  and  with  him  the  friend  and 
counfellor,  worthy  fo  to  be,  of  Washington  ;  one  of 
the  pureSt  and  moSt  accomplifhed  and  raoft  engaging 
characters  that  this  or  any  country  has  produced ; 
whofe  death,  in  office,  at  the  age  of  thirty-nine,  at  a 
moment  when  every  virtuous  retrofpect  and  every 
animating  hope  feemed  to  give  affurance  of  earthly 
happinefs  and  honour,  terminated,  too  foon  for  all 
who  knew  him,  a  career  which  longer  life  had  rendered 
eminent  among  thofe  which  are  identified  with  the 
brighter!:  portion  of  our  nation's  hiftory.* 

Though  the  Subject  of  our  memoir  lived  till  an  ad- 
vanced age,  I  am  not  aware  that  after  his  eftabliShment 
in  this  city,  his  hiStory  was  difr.inguiSh.ed  by  any  of 
thofe  interefting  antagonifms  which  marked  it  in 
Pennfylvania.  You  were  poffibly,  in  thofe  days,  when 
Holland  was  frill  fo  preponderant  in  your  ethnology,  a 
more  phlegmatick  race  than  ourfelves,  although  I  know 
not  that  in  this  day  there  is  any  difference  as  to  the 
degree  in  which  we  feek  peace  and  enfue  it.  Each  has 
given  proof,  at  times,  that  civil  and  fimple  prohibi- 
tions, however  excellent  communications  within  the 
limits  where  it  is  fafe  to  ufe  them,  are  not  exactly 
the  moft  effective  terms  with  which  to  addrefs  a  por- 
tion of  that  population  which  Europe  occafionally  fends 
us.  It  is  not  perhaps  the  leaft  praife  of  a  man  fo  long 
and  fo  clofely  connected  as  Bradford  was  with  the 
great  engine  of  parties,  that  while  he  was  a  Steady  Sup- 
porter of  the  administration  of  Governour  CoSby  and 
*  See  Appendix,  Note  13. 


94  Commemorative  Addrefs. 

Lieutenant  Governour  Clark  againft  the  fierce  oppofi- 
tion  made  by  the  Weekly  Journal  of  Zenger  and  the 
party  of  Van  Dam  who  controlled  it,  he  feems  to  have 
gone  to  extreme  lengths  with  no  one ;  but  to  have 
purfued  a  long  career  of  creditable  induftry,  un- 
marked by  tc  thofe  incidents  which  arreft  the  attention 
c<  by  agitating  the  paffions  of  mankind."  It  was  the 
natural  refult  of  fuch  a  courfe  that  he  accumulated  a 
large  eftate  which  he  lived  long  to  enjoy. 

It  is  an  evidence  of  Bradford's  ftrong  capacity,  that, 
although  c<  the  darknefs  of  old  age  "  had  now  begun 
to  invade  him,  and  his  concerns  were  both  various  and 
extenfive,  he  mould  have  carried  himfelf  and  them 
fuccefsfully  againft  the  rivalry  and  interefts  of  Benjamin 
Franklin.  Through  the  whole  term  of  Franklin's 
connection  with  the  prefs  in  Philadelphia,  the  elder 
Bradford  and  his  fon  or  grandfon  conducted  their 
journals  with  an  ability  which  perfectly  fuftained  them; 
and  againft  the  efforts,  not  very  fcrupulous  ones 
either,  of  this  celebrated  man— to  whom  through  four 
generations  of  their  own  families,  they  were  conftantly 
oppofed,  alike  on  concerns  of  bufinefs  which  touched 
very  fharply  the  pecuniary  interefts  of  the  great 
£  economift  and  calculator;'  on  the  exciting  feuds  of 
Provincial  politicks,  and  finally,  on  the  great  queftion 
of  the  Stamp  Act, — to  which  the  Bradfords  were  act- 
ively oppofed — and  the  courfe  of  the  Colonies  in  the 
early  ftages  of  the  Revolution,  wherein  thefe  perfons 
were  bold  and  confident — managed  the  concerns  of 
their  offices  generally  with  fteady  fuccefs  and  honour- 
able liberality.  Franklin,  with  all  his  addrefs  and  all 
his  power,  and  an  animofity  difficult  to  underftand  in 


Commemorative  Addrefs.  95 

a  temper  fo  apparently  placid  as  his,  but  equal  to 
either,  was  never  able  to  break  them  down.  And  in 
this  country  of  quick  changing  names  and  fcenes,  it 
deferves  a  record,  that  long  after  the  great  philofopher 
and  his  fuccefsful  rival  in  the  bufinefs  of  printing, 
Andrew  Bradford  (fon  of  that  .William  whom  we  now 
commemorate)  were  mouldering  in  the  duft  befide 
each  other  in  the  quiet  graveyard  of  Chrift  Church,  in 
that  fame  place  where  more  than  a  century  before,  the 
c  king  of  printers'  had  been  received  and  entertained  a 
friendlefs  boy  by  a  fon  of  the  aged  colonift*' — there 
yet  ftood,  in  a  fifth  generation — one  hundred  and  forty 
years,  at  leaft,  from  the  time  it  had  been  planted  on 
that  foil — purfuing  frill  its  labour,  and  bearing  ftill  its 
ancient  and  proprietary  name,  a  the  printing  press 
of  William  Bradford. "f 

William  Bradford,  whofe  career  I  have  imperfectly 
fketched  to  you,  clo/ed  his  active  and  ufeful  life  on 
Saturday  evening,  May  23d,  1752,  in  his  90th  year. 

*  Franklin  mentions  in  his  Autobiography  that  when  he  firft  went  to 
Philadelphia,  in  his  17th  year,  he  dreffed  himfelf  as  neat  as  he  could  and 
went  to  Andrew  Bradford,  the  Printer.  "  He  received  me  civily,  gave 
"  me  a  breakfaft ;  told  me  '  I  mould  be  welcome  to  lodge  at  his  houfe  and 
"  '  he  would  give  me  a  little  work  to  do  now  and  then  till  fuller  bufinefs 
"  '  mould  offer.'  "    {Works  of  Franklin  by  Sparks,  i,  35.) 

*|"  It  appears,  from  the  imprint  of  many  books  yet  to  be  feen,  that  this 
prefs  was  in  operation  at  Philadelphia  in  the  year  1825,  being  then  ftill 
under  the  management  of  William  Bradford,  of  New  York,  a  great-great- 
grandfon  of  the  original  founder  of  it  in  1685.  This  gentleman  was  the 
laft  of  this  ancient  family  of  printers;  and  it  is  calculated  to  infpire  a 
fentiment  of  pathetick  feeling  that,  with  him,  the  office  is  finally  clofed. 
He  left  "  no  fon  of  his  fucceeding." 


g6  Commemorative  Addrefs. 

The  New  York  Gazette  of  the  25th  of  May,  which 
announces  his  death,  fays  of  him  : 

"  He  was  a  man  of  great  fobriety  and  induftry,  and  a  real  friend  to 
"  the  poor  and  needy,  and  kind  and  affable  to  all.  He  was  a  true 
"  Englifliman.  His  temperance  was  exceedingly  confpicuous,  and  he 
"  was  almofl  a  ftranger  to  ficknefs  all  his  life." 

Mr.  Thomas  records  of  him:;:  that,  <c  on  the  morning 
<c  of  the  day  which  clofed  his  life,  he  walked  over  a 
cc  great  part  of  the  city." 

Bradford's  remains  were  interred  befide  thofe  of  his 
wife,  on  the  Monday  following  his  death,  in  the 
grounds  of  Trinity  Church.  A  monument  erected  by 
the  piety  of  furviving  friends  in  that  day  has  confe- 
crated  the  fpot  till  our  times.  Ancient  and  perifhing 
however,  it  was  irreparably  injured  in  the  erection  of 
the  noble  pile  which  now  ftands  befide  the  grave. 

The  Church  Corporation,  as  many  of  you  have 
witnefTed,  has  this  day  done  honour  to  itfelf  and 
Bradford  by  placing  there  a  new  one  of  better  work- 
manfhip  and  more  enduring  ftrength. 

Few  who  witnefTed  the  ceremony  there  this  day, 
Trinity  Church  affembled  in  her  corporate  grandeur  to 
do  honour  to  her  long  departed  fon — the  current  of  a 
mighty  city's  thoroughfare  arretted  for  the  better  re- 
verencef — while  choirs,  as  if  of  heaven,  were  chaunting 
hymns  around  that  ancient  grave — will  foon  forget  the 
auguft  and  touching  fcene.  William  Bradford,  by 
the  honours  which  Trinity  has  this  day  paid  his  me- 
mory, is  made  the  earlieft  in  that  line  of  her  worthies — 

*  Hiftory  of  Printing,  ii,  95. 

f  Sec  Supra,  p.  II,  Introductory  Note. 


Commemorative  Addrefs.  97 

God's  fervants  departed  this  life  in  His  Faith  and 
Fear — which  Hugh  Gaine,  James  Oram,  and  Thomas 
Swords,  Printers  and  Publifhers  of  New  York,  have 
brought  in  uninterrupted  honour,  even  to  this  our 
day. 

The  new  ereclion  is  of  marble,  unpolifhed.  The 
proportion  and  fhape  and  ornaments  of  the  old  ftone 
are  preferved ;  the  dimenfions,  only,  being  enlarged. 
Under  the  rude  figuring  of  a  full-faced  cherub,  with 
ftars  and  hour-glafles,  and  a  wreath  of  evergreens,  is 
the  following  infcription : 


Here  lies  the  Body  of  Mr.  William  Bradford, 
Printer,  who  departed  this  Life  May  23, 
1752,  aged  92  Years:  He  was  born  in 
Leicefterfhire,  in  Old  England,  in  1660 : 
and  came  over  to  America  in  1682,  before 
the  City  of  Philadelphia  was  laid  out:  He 
was  Printer  to  this  Government  for  upwards 
of  50  Years;  and  being  quite  worn  out 
with  Old  age  and  labour,  he  left  this 
mortal  State  in  the  lively  Hopes  of  a 
blefled  Immortality. 

Reader,  reflect  how  foon  you'll  quit  this  Stage  : 
You'll  find  but  few  atain  to  fuch  an  Age. 
Life's  full  of  Pain:  Lo  !  here's  a  Place  of  Reft, 
Prepare  to  meet  your  GOD  !  then  you  are  bleft. 

Here  alfo  lies  the  Body  of  Elizabeth,  Wife  to 
the  faid  William  Bradford,  who  departed 
this  Life  July  8,  1731,  aged  68  years. 


RESTORED,  WITH  THE  ORIGINAL  INSCRIPTION,  BY 
THE  VESTRY  OF  TRINITY  CHURCH,  MAY,  1863. 

C  s> 

And  now,  men  and  women  of  New  York,  fellow 
citizens  of  the  Middle  Colonies  of  old,  Countrymen, 
with  me,  of  thefe  greater,  freer,  dearer  commonwealths, 
which  under  Washington  became  united  into  one 
Government — never,  I  truft,  by  traitors'  arts  or  trai- 
tors' arms,  by  fanatick  folly  or  fanatick  fury  to  be  rent 
afunder — is  my  poor  narrative  and  this  quaint  epitaph 
the  be-all  and  the  end-all  of  the  fame  and  influence  of 
N 


98  Commemorative  Addrefs. 

William  Bradford  ?  Afluredly  they  are  not.  This 
celebration,  whofe  folemn  rites  at  Trinity  a  whole  city 
has  this  day  witnefled,  and  which  to-morrow  evening 
will  crown  with  feftive  fcenes,  proves  that  the  fame 
you  cherifh  as  yet  begins  ;  that  only  now,  has  Brad- 
ford's immortality  on  earth  been  firft  eftabliftied  firm. 
A  hundred  years  from  this  day,  by  coming  generations, 
I  doubt  not,  ter-centenary  honours  will  be  paid  his 
name  in  this  the  city  of  his  love  and  longeft  refidence 
as  now  you  pay  them  on  this  the  fecond  and  the  fmaller 
cycle.  He  by  whom  the  Printer's  Art  was  introduced 
to  places  which  have  grown  to  mighty  cities,  extend- 
ing thence  over  mightier  States,  can  never  be  forgot- 
ten. Your  capitol  at  Albany  fhews  in  its  ponderous 
archives,  diligently  fought  of  later  days  from  Holland, 
from  France,  from  England,  from  every  part  of 
Europe  and  now  arranged  with  order  and  lucidity, 
that  the  day  of  your  fmall  things  has  become  the  pride 
of  your  prefent  power.  The  name  and  early  labours 
of  Bradford  are  prominent  I  fee  among  your  glories. 
And  when  we  arrive  at  the  higher  and  better  civiliza- 
tion to  which  we  tend,  with  no  other  tribulations,  I 
fuppofe,  than  fuch  as  Heaven  defigns  to  fit  us  for  it, 
civick  monuments  perhaps  will  crown  the  fame  of 
Bradford  in  this  your  city,  as  in  Frankfort  and  in 
Strafburgh  fuch  memorials  do  the  glory  of  their  wor- 
thies Guttemberg  and  Fauft. 

Bradford  we  know  firft  planted  the  printing  prefs  in 
thefe  regions.  He  firft  maintained  its  rights  againft 
arbitrary  power.  He  eftablifhed  in  this  chief  city  of 
our  land,  an  influence  the  greater!:  which  the  world  as 
yet  hath  known.    How  employed  he  that  influence  ? 


Commemorative  Addrefs.  99 

What  liberty  was  it  that  the  Printer  exercifed,  of  old  ? 
Thefe  be  queftions  which  it  is  well  for  us  to  afk. 
There  is  liberty,  and  there  is  liberty.  There  is  that 
blefTed  liberty  with  which  Heaven  makes  us  free ; 
there  is  that  other  liberty  which  Satan  fends  us,  the 
cloak  of  his  maliciousnefs.  Was  Bradford's  prefs  the 
prefs  of  our  day  ?  Was  his  freedom  ufed  as  we  now 
ufe  ours  ?  He  lived  in  times  when  the  fountains  of 
human  thought  were  largely  opened.  Religious  quef- 
tions were  many  ;  political  difTenfions  grave.  Was  he 
the  agitator  of  vexed  and  vexing  queftions  ?  enamoured 
of  ftrife  ?  intolerant  of  difference  ?  fierce  in  invective  ? 
fruitful  in  denunciation  ?  Was  his  the  prefs  which 
invades  the  atmofphere  of  every  man  however  great  or 
however  private  ;  which,  with  rude  affault,  tears  away 
the  decent  drapery  of  life,  and  would  explode  with 
ridicule  C£  the  fuperadded  ideas  furnifhed  from  the 
"  wardrobe  of  a  moral  imagination,  which  the  heart 
cc  owns  and  the  underftanding  ratifies  as  necefTary  to 
cc  cover  the  defects  of  our  naked,  fhivering  nature, 
cc  and  to  raife  it  to  dignity  in  our  own  eftimation  ?" 
Did  he  feek  the  printer's  gain  by  making  the  print- 
er's Art  the  minifter  to  ignorance,  to  fanaticifm.  to 
malignity,  to  faction  or  to  violence  ?  Far  otherwife 
indeed.  His  was  a  virtuous  liberty,  a  liberty  in- 
feparable  from  religion,  from  order,  from  good 
morals,  from  good  manners ;  a  liberty  which  edu- 
cation and  felf-refpect  and  dignity  preceded,  and  in 
whofe  train  moderation,  amenity,  decorum  and  all 
the  graces  followed.  It  was  freedom  under  that 
higher  power  c  whofe  feat  is  the  bofom  of  God,  whofe 
voice,  the  harmony  of  the  world.'    It  was  Liberty 


ioo  Commemorative  Addrefs. 

under  Law.  He  worfhipped  Freedom,  but  he  never 
thought  of  Freedom  as  diffociated  with  Government. 
Freedom  and  Government,  Government  and  Freedom ; 
complemental ;  never  to  be  parted.  In  his  long  and 
active  life,  pafTed  in  many  regions  and  where  divers 
rules  prevailed,  it  was  his  fortune  to  be  fometimes  in 
oppofition  to  the  ruling  powers  and  fometimes  their 
trufted  advocate.  But  in  oppofing  adminiftrations, 
he  refpected  the  principles  of  Government.  In  devo- 
tion to  place,  he  never  fuffered  violence  to  the  fpirit 
of  Liberty.  Happy,  my  countrymen,  my  country- 
women, the  power  and  the  freedom  of  fuch  a  prefs  ! 
Happier,  perhaps,  than  thefe,  fucceeding  times,  if  they 
regain  our  rich  and  early  inheritance ! 


APPENDIX. 


Note  \,  page  19. 

IN  France,  the  evidence  of  this  takes  a  form  that  is  amufing,  as 
indeed,  in  the  diftribution  of  its  honours,  we  muft  regard  it  alio 
as  one  that  is  unjuft.  No  one  enters  even  the  outer  court  of 
the  Imprimerie  Nationale  of  that  great  Empire,  in  the  Rue  Vielle  du 
Temple,  without  having  his  attention  arretted  by  a  Monument  erected 
in  honour  of  the  Founders  of  the  Art  fo  clofely  connected  with  that 
civilization  in  which  France  confiders  that  Hie  leads  the  world.  Among 
thefe,  as  the  reprefentative  of  the  firft  efforts  in  the  New  World, 
Hands  Franklin ;  not  here  tearing  thunder  from  the  fkies,  nor  the 
fceptre  from  Tyrants,  but  exulting  as  an  induftrious  mechanick  in  his 
Printing  Prefs.  He  is  exhibiting  its  wonders  to  a  band  of  gazing 
favages ;  the  inhabitants,  as  they  are  meant  to  be  prefented,  of  a  place, 
juft  reclaimed  from  the  wildernefs,  where  firft  he  lhowed  the  Art. 
Of  William  Bradford,  the  fubjecl:  of  our  prefent  fketch,  fuch  a  reprefenta- 
tion  would  have  been  but  the  exhibition  of  a  fcene  that  many  times  might 
have  been  literally  true.  Along  the  Tacony  and  at  Abington,  where  it  is 
moft  probable  that  he  eftablifhed  his  prefs,  the  Indians  remained,  as  on 
the  Brandywine,  for  fome  time  after  they  had  been  difpofferTed  by  the 
Swedes  and  Fins  of  the  foil  on  which  part  of  the  city  of  Philadelphia 
Hands.  This  is  fhewn  by  Treaties  yet  in  the  Capitol,  at  Harrifburgh, 
which  indicate  and  define  the  ceffions  made  from  time  to  time  by  our 
Aborigines.  But  when  Franklin  adventured  his  youthful  fortunes  at  Phila- 
delphia, in  1727,  the  prefs  had  been  in  operation  there  for  more  than 
forty  years.  Two  generations  of  printers,  with  more  than  as  many  in- 
dividual reprefentatives,  had  been  before  him,  and  fome  of  them  were  then 


102 


Appendix. 


befide  him.  The  Province  had  become  rich  and  the  prefs  was  in  active 
and  extenfive  operation.  I  fancy,  however,  that  in  mod  of  the  great 
improvements  by  which  the  world  has  been  benefitted,  the  true  author 
has  not  been  the  man  who  has  been  popularly  received  as  fuch.  School- 
men muft  explain  the  matter,  and  mew  in  what  compenfations  of  fome  other 
world — future  or  now  paft  perhaps — the  matter  is  rectified  ;  prove  chance, 
direction  which  we  cannot  fee;  and  "difcord,  harmony  not underftood." 

Note  2,  page  20. 

BRADFORD'S  tomb-ftone  in  Trinity  Church-yard,  fays  that  he 
was  born  "in  1660,"  no  day  nor  month  being  given.  The 
whole  infeription  on  the  ftone  feems  to  be  taken  from  an  obituary  notice 
which  appeared  in  the  New  York  Gazette  juft  after  his  death.  This,  I 
prefume,  was  written  by  James  Parker,  who  would  appear  to  have  had 
but  a  general  knowledge  of  the  date  which  he  gives  in  this  indefinite 
way.  The  date  in  the  Almanack,  for  the  obfervation  of  which  we  are 
indebted  to  the  late  Mr.  E.  B.  Corwin  of  New  York,  is  probably  more 
accurate,  as  having  been  made  by  Bradford  himfelf,  or  at  any  rate,  as 
having  been  feen  and  approved  by  him. 

Note  3,  page  26. 

WHERE,  exactly,  this  prefs  was  eftablimed  no  refearch  that  I  have 
been  able  to  make  enables  me  to  fay.  Early  imprints  mew  that 
it  was  '  near  Philadelphia.'  Mr.  Thomas  fuppofes  that  Bradford  may  have 
been  at  Kenfington,  not  far  from  the  Indian  Tree.  Abington  has  been  fug- 
gefted  as  alfo  Burlington,  N.  J.,  in  which  laft  place  Bradford's  defcendants 
were  for  many  years  among  the  principal  people,  and  where,  as  is  ftated  in 
the  Introductory  Note,  his  great-grandfon,  the  Hon.  William  Bradford, 
Efquire,  Attorney-General  of  the  United  States  under  the  Prefidency  of 
Washington,  is  interred.  At  this  epoch,  we  are  perhaps  at  the  leaft 
favorable  point  for  afcertaining  the  particulars  of  Bradford's  hiftory  with 
truth; — too  far  off  for  knowledge  from  actual  or  tranfmitted  recollections ; 
not  far  enough  away  for  the  truth  of  the  cafe  as  a  matter  of  antiquarian 
hiftory.  Regarding  the  topick  in  this  laft  point  of  view,  it  is  to  be  noted 
that  we  are  as  yet  but  two  hundred  years  from  the  date  of  his  birth,  and 
at  the  right  diftance  only  for  giving  an  outline  and  maffing  of  the  colors. 
In  the  next  century  or  two  the  focal  diftance  will  become  better  adjufted ; 


appendix. 


and  I  fuppofe  that  our  infinitely  great  grand-children  will  be  able  to  fill  in 
the  work  and  to  give  to  it  the  finifhing  touches.  Caxton  died,  I  believe, 
A.  D.  1490.  The  beft  and  only  complete  Life  of  him  (Mr.  Blades's)  has 
but  now  appeared  (A.  D.  1861).  At  this  rate  of  progrefs  Bradford's 
will  be  fully  and  accurately  written  A.  D.  2034;  when  London  and  Paris 
in  comparifon  of  New  York  will  be  but  villages.  Honorable  mention 
will  be  made,  I  hope,  of  the  Bicentenary  and  the  Addrefs. 

Note  4,  page  26. 

AQUERE  has  been  made  whether  Bradford  did  not  firft  come  to 
America  in  1685  ;  the  ground  of  the  doubt  being  a  letter,  given 
in  the  text  (p.  25),  by  which  George  Fox  introduces  him  in  that  year  to 
various  perfons  in  this  country.  I  think  there  is  no  fufficient  reafon  for 
difturbing  the  hitherto  received  idea. 

Without  meaning  to  dogmatize  where  others  dubitate,  and  quite  ready 
to  admit  that  if  Bradford  did  not  come  with  Mr.  Penn  in  1682,  he  efcaped 
a  very  difagreeable  voyage,  I  rather  argue  as  follows : 

I.  Undoubtedly,  the  tradition,  of  which  from  ancient  people,  I  have 
fome  knowledge,  has  always  been  that  Bradford  came  with  Mr.  Penn. 

II.  Dixon  and  Armftrong  both  fo  ftate  it :  one  on  one  fide  of  the 
Atlantick,  the  other  on  the  other. 

in.  In  the  Obituary  of  Bradford  contained  in  the  New  York  Gazette 
of  May  25,  1752,  it  is  faid,  "  He  came  to  America  feventy  years  ago," 
(this  would  be  1682,  the  year  of  Penn's  firft  landing),  "and  landed  at  a 
place  where  Philadelphia  now  ftands,  before  that  city  was  laid  out  or  a 
houfe  built  there"  This  implied  hiftory  about  houfes  in  Philadelphia 
would  be,  I  believe,  exactly  true  fuppofing  him  to  have  come  in  October, 
1682,  but  would  not  be  at  all  true  fuppofing  him  to  have  come  in  the 
autumn  of  1685.  In  the  autumn  of  1682,  houfes  had,  I  believe,  been 
built  at  Kenfington,  above  Philadelphia  (Fairman's  Houfe),  and  at  Wec- 
cacoe,  below  it,  but  not  in  Philadelphia  itfelf,  where  they  were  firft  built 
on  Penn's  arrival  in  that  year.  In  1685  there  were,  undeniably,  many 
houfes  in  Philadelphia.  No  doubt,  whoever  wrote  the  Obituary  (James 
Parker,  I  prefume),  had  heard  Bradford  mention  this  exact  fact ;  one  often 
ftated,  perhaps,  in  contrail  to  the  extent  and  populousnefs  of  Philadelphia 
and  the  number  of  houfes  there  when  the  ftatement  was  made. 

iv.  But  ftronger  than  all,  his  name  is  given  among  the  names  of  perfons 


1 04  Appendix. 


belonging  cither  to  Philadelphia  or  the  adjoining  "  Lower  Counties,"  un- 
der the  date  of  "the  12th  of  ye  7th  mo.  1683." — Minutes  of  Provincial 
Council,  i,  p.  27,  Edition  of  1838. 

My  iuppofition  is  that  Bradford  came,  as  has  generally  been  believed, 
in  1682  ;  took  a  furvey  of  the  country  ;  returned  to  England,  got  married 
and  came  finally  in  1685,  with  his  prefs.  Fox's  letter  looks  much  as  if  it 
had  been  fuggefted  in  many  particulars  by  Bradford.  The  direction  given 
by  Fox  to  "fettle  what  number"  of  copies  of  Bradford's  publications  or 
importations  "  each  meeting  may  take  off"  favours  much  more  of  a  pub- 
lisher or  importer  directly  interefted,  than  of  a  "  Friend  in  the  Miniftry 
though,  no  doubt,  Friends  in  the  Minftry,  or  in  the  Pennfylvania  branch 
of  it,  had  fometimes  all  the  complement  which  the  Gofpel  requires,  to 
the  harmleffnefs  of  Doves. 

Note  5,  page  29. 

MR.  Joel  Munfell,  a  native  of  Northfield,  Maffachufetts,  and  born 
in  1 808,  whofe  eftablifhment  of  himfelf  at  Albany  in  1827,  away 
from  the  great  commercial  centres  of  the  country,  has  not  prevented  his  be- 
coming the  facile  princeps  of  a  choice  clafs  of  our  typographers,  has  till  lately 
been  as  well  known,  perhaps,  to  the  elegant  few  as  to  the  lefs  difcriminating 
many.  His  own  fine  perceptions  and  his  perfevering  effort  to  introduce 
antique  and  ornamental  printing  into  our  country  has  of  late  however 
been  fo  fucceffful  that  even  Falhion  has  now  enrolled  herfelf  among  his 
patrons,  and,  with  the  increafing  wealth  and  refinement  of  the  nation,  we 
fee  in  all  parts  of  the  North  and  Eaft,  efforts  at  a  revival  of  the  more 
beautiful  forms  of  the  ancient  printer's  Art.  No  typographer  of  our 
country,  however,  has  carried  his  efforts  in  this  line  to  the  fame  extent  or 
to  the  fame  degree  of  perfection  as  Mr.  Munfell,  whofe  various  and  ele- 
gant fonts  embrace  not  only  every  antique  fort  that  has  iffued  of  late  from 
our  own  foundries,  but  every  thing,  as  well,  that  England  or  France 
offers  as  a  fupplement.  The  literary  and  hiftorical  department  of  his  x^rt 
has  engaged  this  gentleman's  time  and  ftudy  not  lefs  than  that  which  ad- 
dreffes  itfelf  to  the  eye  alone.  In  fact  he  has  made  typography,  in  its 
hiftory  and  application,  a  fpecial  ftudy  ;  and  his  collection  of  works  on 
this  fubject  was  fo  much  the  largeft  and  bell:  felected  of  any  ever  made  in 
America,  that  the  State  authorities  of  New  York,  unwilling  to  rifle  a  poffi- 
bility  of  fo  precious  a  collection  being  difperfed  hereafter,  felt  bound  in 


Appendix. 


publick  duty  to  endeavour  to  fecure  it  for  the  publick  benefit.  Being  frill 
to  be  retained  in  the  city  of  his  refidence,  Mr.  Munfell  was  prevailed  on 
to  relinquish  it  and  it  now  forms  a  part  of  the  beautiful  State  Library  at 
Albany,  New  York.  Like  our  own  Bradford,  of  whom  at  the  interval 
of  one  hundred  and  feventy-five  years,  he  is  now,  in  this  refpect  a  true 
fucceflbr,  Mr.  Munfell  is  not  more  diftinguifhed  in  the  bufmefs  of  typo- 
graphy than  he  is  learned  and  fkillful  in  its  acceffory  of  paper-making. 
No  paper  made  in  the  United  States  exhibits  the  flrength  and  beauty  of 
texture  which  characterizes  fome  that  Mr.  Munfell  has  had  made  for 
fpecial  works  that  have  been  printed  by  him.  He  is  indeed  himfelf  the 
author  of  a  learned  work  on  this  branch  of  labour ;  I  refer  to  his  Chro- 
nology of  Paper  and  Paper-Making  ;  an  8vo.  publifhed  by  him  in  i860. 

Mr.  Munfell  has  been  a  literary  contributor  to  numerous  papers  and 
magazines  of  our  country,  as  well  as  editor  of  feveral.  The  following 
works,  generally  confined  to  very  fmall  editions,  one  or  two  hundred  copies, 
may  be  referred  to  as  among  the  more  elegant  ifTues  of  his  antique  prefs. 
I.  Orderly  Book  of  the  Britim  and  Provincial  Army  under  Major-General 
Jeffrey  Amherft,  againft  Ticonderoga  and  Crown  Point  in  1759.  ^*  A 
Narrative  of  the  Caufes  which  led  to  Philip's  Indian  War  of  1675  an<^ 
1676,  by  John  Eafton.  III.  Orderly  Book  of  the  Northern  Army  at 
Ticonderoga  and  M*  Independence,  1776 — 1777;  with  a  portrait  of 
Gen1  Gates ;  annotated  by  the  publilher.  IV.  Diary  of  the  Siege  of 
Detroit  in  the  war  with  Pontiac,  with  the  events  of  the  Siege.  V.  Ob- 
ftructions  of  the  Navigation  of  Hudfon's  River,  embracing  the  Minutes  of 
the  Committee  of  July  16,  1776  ;  annotated  by  the  publilher.  VI.  The 
Loyal  Verfes  of  Stan/bury  and  Odell,  relating  to  the  American  Revolu- 
tion. VII.  General  Burgoyne's  Orderly  Book  from  his  entry  into  New 
York  until  his  furrender  at  Saratoga,  1 6th  October,  1777.  VIII.  Early 
Voyages  up  and  down  the  Miffifiippi ;  by  Cavalier,  St.^Cofme,  Le  Suer 
and  others.  IX  and  X.  Papers  relating  to  the  extinguishment  of  Indian 
Titles  in  New  York.  All  thefe  form  part  of  his  Hiftorical  Series. 
Phelps's  Hiftory  of  Newgate  in  Connecticut,  and  Woodworth's  Reminif- 
cences  of  Troy  from  1 790  to  1 807,  annotated  by  Mr.  Munfell  himfelf, 
may  alfo  be  mentioned  in  connection  with  his  reproductions  of  the  early 
ftyle. 

o 


io6 


Appendix. 


Note  6,  page  30. 

WHILE  the  French  Letter  Founders  are  undoubtedly  greatly  in  ad- 
vance of  us  in  color  and  tints,  in  graceful  forms,  in  combinations 
of  all  kinds ;  in  flowers,  in  borders,  in  wheels,  in  traits  de  plume,  and  in 
every  fort  of  ornament — it  is  not  lefs  certain  that  we  excel  them  in  the  folidity 
and  fmoothnefs  of  our  work.  Let  any  man  take  the  exquifite  volume,  as 
it  truly  is  to  the  eye  of  tafte,  of  Charles  Deriey,  whofe  letter  foundry  in 
the  Rue  Notre  Dame  des  Champs,  Paris,  Nos.  6  and  12,  is  one  of  the 
attractions  of  that  tafteful  capital,  and  compare  it  with  The  Specimens  of 
Printing  Type,  Plain  and  Ornamental,  from  the  Foundry  of  L.  Johnfon 
&  Co.  in  Philadelphia,  and  he  will  fee  what  I  mean.  He  will  fee  that  in 
all  the  French  work  (and  the  fame  remark  is  true  of  Foreign  work  gene- 
rally), the  lines  are  imperfect :  the  faces  are  not  brought  up  ;  the  types 
are  lefs  even.  In  fhort,  exquifitely  beautiful  as  the  efecls  of  the  French 
work  are,  the  types  are  often  greatly  deficient  in  accuracy  of  fitting  and 
in  perfection  of  face.  Hence,  if  examined  with  a  glafs,  or  even  by  a  good 
eye  without  one,  they  frequently  appear  irregular  and  broken.  In  fact,  the 
defects  of  their  type  are  largely  concealed  by  the  perfection  of  their  prefs- 
work ;  by  their  fkillful  preparation  of  the  form.  They  e  over-lay  '  and 
*  under-lay '  with  fo  much  care  and  minutenefs  that  you  do  not  fee,  in  the 
impreffion,  that  which  is  obvious  in  the  metal.  There  is  no  doubt,  either, 
that  the  copper  ufed  by  the  French  for  matrices  is  inferior  to  our  copper. 
Indeed,  where  American  orders  are  given  for  French  work,  it  is  generally 
requefted  that  the  fteel  may  be  driven  in  Englifh  or  American  copper  only. 
Our  Calling  Machines,  too,  are  better  than  theirs.  The  greater!  improve- 
ments in  this  important  branch  have  come  from  our  own  country.  The 
hand-machine  of  my  fellow-citizen,  Archibald  Binny,  was  greatly  in  advance, 
at  the  time  he  introduced  it,  of  any  thing  known  in  Europe ;  juft  as  much 
as  the  prefent  engine,  the  invention  of  David  Bruce,  Jr.,  of  New  York — 
a  true  genius  in  this  department — is  in  advance  of  Binny's.  With  fuch  an 
invention  it  is  no  wonder  that  the  foreign  letter-founders  afk  Americans 
who  vifit  their  work-fhops,  as  I  khow  they  do  afk, — "  How  is  it  that  your 
'  bold  face '  is  fo  excellent  every  way — fo  folid,  fo  fmooth,  and  nowhere 
funk  ?"  Our  great  defect  is  in  good  tafte.  We  have  tafte  enough — more 
than  enough — but  it  is  bad  tafte  very  frequently ;  elaborate  vulgarity — 

"  Endlefs  labor  all  along  ; 
Endlefs  labor  to  go  wrong." 


Appendix. 


107 


"  We  have  made  great  advancee  in  a  right  direction  of  late.  The 
Specimens  of  Printi?ig  Type,  Plain  and  Ornamental  fhow  this.  Our 
Schools  of  Defign  will  greatly  benefit  us.  Let  us  encourage  their  efforts 
in  the  typographick  direction.  Let  us  ftudy  Greek  forms,  Etrufcan  forms. 
There  is  no  beauty  befides  in  the  whole  world.  Gothick  may  do  for 
*  wheels.'  Our  abilities,  our  appliances  are  ahead,  I  think,  of  the  people 
of  Europe.  What  we  want  is  thorough  education  in  Art ;  more  patience  ; 
lefs  economy.  We  think  in  this  matter,  as  in  graver  ones  of  State  and 
War,  that  every  man  can  do  every  thing  ;  a  vaft  miftake  indeed.  In  the 
department  of  the  Prefs  efpecially,  we  drive  things  too  haftily.  We  do  not 
allow  even  our  paper  to  ripen.  We  rarely  roll  it.  Our  ink  is  too  cheap. 
We  will  not  pay  our  men  enough  to  become  artifts.  The  French  take 
more  pains,  give  more  time,  pay  more  money. 

Note  7,  page  35. 

SOME  of  Caxton's  books  declare  themfelves  to  be  8  Printed  in  the 
xA.bbey  of  Weftminfter.'  Others  that  they  are  printed  at  Weftminfter. 
The  idea  has  been  generally  had,  until  lately  perhaps,  that  Caxon's  prefs 
was  "  in  the  Abbey  either  in  the  Scriptorium  or  the  Almonry  ;  this  laft 
occupying,  as  Dr.  Dibden  fuppofes,  the  fpot  where  now  Hands  the  Chapel 
of  Henry  the  VII.  There  is  no  doubt  that  the  prefs  was  fixed  fome- 
where  within  the  Abbey  precincts.  An  argument  has  been  made  againft 
its  being  in  the  Abbey  from  the  dirt  which  a  printing  prefs  would  have 
caufed  there.  I  know  not  exactly  how  much  dirt  a  fmall  prefs  would  caufe 
any  where  ;  nor  what  Caxton's  typographical  habits  were  ;  nor  how  nearly 
the  Dean  and  Chapter  of  Weftminfter,  in  thofe  days,  held  fmfulnefs  and 
dirtinefs  to  be  identical.  But  I  know  that  if  any  gentleman  will  now  vifit 
the  Abbey  Church  of  Romfey — Lord  Palmerfton,  the  Premier's  Church, 
and  where  his  father,  mother  and  fifters  are  interred — the  moft  exquifite 
fpecimen  of  Norman  Architecture  in  all  England — he  will  fee — if  he  fees 
what  I  did  in  1857 — one  of  the  Apfes  of  that  exquifite  ftrudture  walled 
off,  and  converted  into  the  town  Fire  Engine-Houfe.  It  was,  moreover, 
an  uncared  for  and  diforderly  place  even  for  the  receptable  of  fuch  coarfe 
apparatus.  I  remember  that  as  I  looked  at  the  fpot — dirty,  defecrated 
and  almoft  deftroyed — I  could  not  but  recall  the  noble  fervice  of  the 
'  Pontificate '  performed  near  eight  hundred  years  ago  within  thofe  very 
walls,  and  which  had  dedicated  the  place  as  one  thenceforth  to  be  fepa- 
rated  from  all  unhallowed,  worldly  and  common  ufes,  "  immunes  ab  omni 


108  Appendix. 

vulgar i  flrepitu  et  negotio  ;  ut  Domus  orationis  ad  aliud  nullum  co?nmercium 
atque  ufum  accommodaretur"  (See  the  fervice,  "  De  Ecclefite  Dedica- 
tio?ie  feu  Confecratione")  Romfey  is  not  the  only  Church  in  England 
which  remembers  it  but  badly. 

Note  8,  page  37. 

1AM  not  able  to  difcover  that  Bradford  was  attended  by  any  one  who 
could  give  him  the  leaft  afliftance  in  his  art,  unlefs  perhaps  his  wife, 
who  may  perhaps  have  affifted  him  in  reading  proofs :  and  of  this  there  is 
no  evidence.  Little  has  come  down  to  us  of  the  lady  who  became  Mrs. 
Bradford.  Of  another  of  Mr.  Sowle's  daughters  who  remained  fingle,  a 
fifter  of  Mifs  Elizabeth,  we  have  an  entertaining  notice  in  the  Life  and 
Errors  of  the  eccentrick  John  Dunton,  originally  publifhed  in  1705,  and 
feveral  times  reprinted.  It  would  appear  that,  on  the  death  of  her  father 
without  any  male  defcendant,  the  hereditary  eftablifhment,  as  is  not  un- 
common in  England,  was  maintained  by  herfelf.  Dunton  fays  as  fol- 
lows :  "  Mrs.  Tacy  Sowle  is  both  a  printer  as  well  as  bookfeller,  and 
"  the  daughter  of  one,  and  underftands  her  trade  very  well,  being  a  good 
"  compofitor  herfelf.  Her  love,  and  piety  to  her  aged  mother  is  emi- 
((  nently  remarkable,  even  to  that  degree  that  Ihe  keeps  herfelf  unmarried 
"  for  this  only  reafon  (as  I  have  been  informed),  that  it  may  not  be  out 
"  of  her  power  to  let  her  mother  have  always  the  chief  command  in  her 
u  houfe.  I  have  known  this  eminent  Quaker  for  many  years,  have  been 
"  generoufly  treated  at  her  houfe,  and  mull  do  her  the  juftice  to  fay,  I 
"  believe  her  a  confcientious  perfon.  If  any  blame  me  for  being  thus 
"  charitable,  I  can  not  help  it,  for  I  can  not  think  it  a  piece  of  religion 
t(  to  anathematize  from  Chrift  all  fuch  as  will  not  fubfcribe  to  every  one 
"  of  my  articles.  I  do  believe  fmcerity  and  holinefs  will  carry  us  to 
"  heaven  with  any  wind  and  with  any  name ;  at  leaft  I  have  fo  much 
"  charity  as  to  think  all  thofe  perfons  go  to  heaven,  whether  they  be 
"  Churchmen,  Prefbyterians  or  Quakers,  in  whom  I  fee  fo  much 
"goodnefs  and  virtue  as  is  vifible  in  the  life  and  converfation  of  Mrs. 
"  Sowle/' — [Quoted  in  Encyclopedia  of  Literary  and  Typographical 
Anecdotes,  London,  1842,  p.  693.] 


Appendix. 


109 


Note  9,  page  42. 

The  following  are  Bradford's  printed  Propofals  for  printing  the  Bible 
and  accompanying  it  with  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer ;  the  original 
orthography,  capitalization,  &c,  being  retained : 

cc  Propofals  for  the  Printing  of  a  large  BIBLE 

<c  by  William  Bradford. 

"  '  I  AHefe  are  to  give  Notice,  that  it  is  propofed  for  a  large  houfe- 
Bible  to  be  Printed  by  way  of  Subfcriptions  [a  method  ufual 
"  in  England  for  the  Printing  of  large  Volumns,  becaufe  Printing  is  very 
"  chargeable]  therefore  to  all  that  are  willing  to  forward  fo  good  (and 
"  great)  a  Work,  as  the  Printing  of  the  holy  Bible,  are  offered  thefe 
"  Propofals,  viz. 

"  1.  That  It  mall  be  printed  in  a  fair  Character,  on  good  Paper,  and 
"  well  bound. 

"  2.  That  it  lhall  contain  the  Old  and  New  Teftament,  with  the 
"  Apocraphy,  and  all  to  have  ufeful  Marginal'Notes. 

"  3.  That  it  lhall  be  allowed  (to  them  that  fubfcribe)  for  Twenty 
"  Shillings  per  Bible :  [A  Price  which  one  of  the  fame  volumn  in  England 
u  would  coft.] 

"  4.  That  the  pay  mall  be  half  Silver  Money,  and  half  Country  Pro- 
"  duce  at  Money  price.  One  half  down  now,  and  the  other  half  on  the 
"  delivery  of  the  Bibles. 

"  5.  That  thofe  who  do  fubfcribe  for  fix,  mall  have  the  Seventh  gratis, 
"  and  have  them  delivered  one  month  before  any  above  that  number  lhall 
'*  be  fold  to  others. 

"  6.  To  thofe  which  do  not  fubfcribe,  the  faid  Bibles  will  not  be  al- 
"  lowed  under  26  s.  a  piece. 

"  7.  Thofe  who  are  minded  to  have  the  Common-Prayer,  lhall  have 
"  the  whole  bound  up  for  22  s.  and  thofe  that  do  not  fubfcribe  28  s.  and 
t(  6  d.  per  Book. 

f*  8.  That  as  encouragement  is  given  by  Peoples  fubfcribing  and  pay- 
"  ing  down  one  half,  the  faid  Work  will  be  put  forward  with  what 
<e  Expedition  may  be. 

"  9.  That  the  Subfcribers  may  enter  their  Subfcriptions  and  time  of 
"  Payment,  at  Pbeneas  Pemberton's  and  Robert  Halls  in  the  County  of 
"  Bucks.     At  Malen  Stacy's  Mill  at  the  Falls.    At  Thomas  Budds  Houfe 


I  IO 


Appendix. 


"in  Burlington.  At  John  Haftings  in  the  County  of  Cbefter.  At 
"Edward  Blake's  in  New-Cajlle.  At  Thomas  Woodrooffs  in  Salem. 
"  And  at  William  Bradford's  in  Philadelphia,  Printer  &  Undertaker  of 
"  the  faid  Work.  At  which  places  the  Subfcribers  lhall  have  a  Receipt 
"  for  fo  much  of  their  Subfcriptions  paid,  and  an  obligation  for  the  de- 
"  livery  of  the  number  of  Bibles  (fo  Printed  and  Bound  as  aforefaid)  as 
"  the  refpe&ive  Subfcribers  (hall  depofit  one  half  for. 

"  Alfo  this  may  further  give  notice,  that  Samuell  Richard/on  and 
"  Samuell  Carpenter  of  Philadelphia,  are  appointed  to  take  care  and  be 
"  afliftant  in  the  laying  out  of  the  Subfcription  Money,  and  to  fee  that 
"  it  be  imploy'd  to  the  ufe  intended,  and  confequently  that  the  whole 
"  Work  be  expedited.    Which  is  promifed  by 

"  William  Bradford." 

"Philadelphia,  the  14th  of 
"the  ill  Month,  1688." 

Note  10,  page  50. 

I HAVE  mentioned  above  in  Note*4,  that  a  quere  has  been  lately  raifed 
whether  Bradford  was  in  America  any  time  prior  to  1685,  the  date  of 
George  Fox's  letter  of  introduction  of  him  to  Fox's  own  friends.  His  ex- 
amination before  the  Governour  and  Council  was  in  1689  ;  and  a  pafTage 
in  his  report  of  that  proceeding  affords  perhaps  the  ftrongeft  ground 
which  there  is  for  the  quere.  Bradford  fays  in  it :  "I  have  been  here 
"  near  four  years  and  never  had  fo  much  fd  to  me  before."  I  underftand 
Bradford  to  mean,  however,  that  he  had  been  '  here,'  /.  e.  in  the  city  of 
Philadelphia,  where  the  Governour  and  Council  were  fitting — (  near  four 
'  years ;'  eftablifhed  *  here '  as  a  printer.  This  is  confiftent  with  his 
having  come  on  a  vifit  in  1682;  and  even  with  his  having  been  fixed  for 
a  certain  time  without  a  prefs  in  the  Lower  Counties,  now  the  State  of 
Delaware  :  or  at  Chefter  in  Pennfylvania,  Burlington  in  New  Jerfey,  or 
even  at  Germantown  or  Abington  in  Philadelphia  County.  It  is  not 
fuppofed  that  he  was  eftablifhed,  with  his  prefs,  in  Philadelphia  prior  to 
the  autumn  of  1685.  The  entry  in  the  Provincial  Minutes  (vol.  i,  p.  27, 
edition  of  1838),  of  his  name  under  the  date  of  "  the  12th  of  ye  7th 
"  mo.  1683,"  rather  lhews  that  he  was  at  that  date  fouth  of  Philadelphia, 
or  at  leaft  that  he  lived  fomewhere  where  "  tobacco  "  grew ;  which  was 
perhaps  in  the  Lower  Counties  or  near  them.    As  I  prefume  that  he  was 


Appendix. 


1 1 1 


engaged  to  be  married  prior  to  coming  in  1682,  I  fuppofe  that  he  did 
not  remain  long  here ;  no  longer  than  was  neceflary  to  fee  where  beft  to 
eftablifh  himfelf  when  he  mould  come  with  a  wife,  and  permanently. 

Since  the  body  of  this  pamphlet  has  been  printed,  Mr.  Frederick 
Kidder,  to  whom  I  refer  in  a  note  on  page  26,  as  having  been  the  pof- 
feflbr  in  1853  of  a  copy  of  Bradford's  Almanack  of  1686,  writes 
to  me  as  follows :  "  It  is  not  at  prefent  in  my  pofleffion.  It  was,  I 
"  mould  fay,  a  i6mo  of  fome  twenty  pages,  and  in  the  firft  page  after 
"  the  title  had  a  fort  of  preface  which  gave  fome  account  of  the  intro- 
"  duclion  of  printing  into  Pennfylvania."  It  is  moft  defirable,  of  courfe, 
that  the  prefent  place  of  exiftence  of  this  tract,  obvioufly  one  of  great  in- 
tereft  as  refpedls  our  fubjett,  mould  be  difcovered.  And  I  mail  take  it 
as  a  favour  done  to  me  perfonally,  as  it  will  alfo  be  an  important  fervice 
done  to  the  hiftory  of  early  printing  in  America,  if  any  pofTeiTbr  of  the 
document,  unique  fo  far  as  I  am  aware,  or  other  perfon,  will  inform  me 
where  it  now  is.  From  this  prefatory  page  mentioned  by  Mr.  Kidder, 
and  written  doubtlefs  by  Bradford  himfelf,  we  may  recover  a  hiftory 
otherwile  irreclaimably  loft.  The  Almanack  of  1686,  it  will  be  obferved, 
was  a  pamphlet :  herein  being  a  greater  work  than  its  fucceflbr  of  1687  ; 
a  broad-fheet  only. 

Note  i  i,  page  60. 

1HAVE  fome  practical  knowledge  of  the  Cenfuras  in  Rome.  In  1858- 
9,  happening  to  be  there  at  the  time,  a  little  girl  of  my  acquaintance 
loft  a  favorite  poodle  dog.  The  diftrefs  in  the  houfe  was  extreme.  My 
aid  was  invoked.  I  thought  at  once  of  a  hand-bill  and  reward  :  and 
haftened  forthwith  to  the  printing  office  in  the  Via  Babuino.  The  ad- 
vertifement  was  fhort ;  offering  Ten  Scudi  to  anybody  who  would  bring 
the  faid  poodle,  defcribing  him  as  having  a  filver  collar  and  gold  bells 
round  his  neck,  &c,  &c,  to  his  difconfolate  owner,  No.  56  Via  Con- 
dotti,  zndo  Piano.  Arriving  at  the  office  I  handed  my  manufcript,  not 
exceeding  three  lines,  to  the  foreman  of  the  office.  Had  I  aimed  a  feven- 
barrelled  revolver  at  him,  the  poor  man  would  not  have  looked  more 
terrified  and  amazed.  '  Ah  Jignore  !  e  impojjibile  !  Non  pojfo.  Sarei 
'  prejio  in  carcere?  St.  Angelo  plainlv  was  before  him  !  '  There  was 
'  no  permej/b  on  the  paper !'  I  anfwered  that  it  was  only  an  advertife- 
ment  for  a  poodle  dog :  that  the  little  creature  was  quite  young,  and 
might  die  of  ftarvation  or  be  trod  under  foot  and  killed,  if  left  to  run 


I  12 


Appendix. 


about  all  day.  The  matter  '*  required  fpeed."  '  Ah,  your  Excellency, 
'  that  makes  no  difference.  I  mould  like  to  oblige  your  Excellency  but 
'  I  muft  have  the  permejfos  before  I  can  print  anything' — was  the  reply. 
There  being  no  appeal  from  either  the  manner  or  the  fubftance  of  this,  I 
took  the  man's  directions  to  the  Cenfuras  and  drove  off  at  full  fpeed.  I 
got  the  Politico  ;  but  before  I  could  get  the  Eccleftaftico,  for  which  I  had 
to  crofs  the  Tiber,  the  office  was  clofed.  The  next  day  and  the  day 
following  it  were  F eft  as.  Neither  the  A 'b bate  who  gave  the  Permejfo 
Ecclefiaftico,  nor  the  Stampatore,  would  do  anything.  Their  offices  were 
both  fhut.  On  the  third  day  I  got  the  remaining  permejfo  and  had  the 
handbill,  with  its  generous  reward,  ftruck  off  and  placarded  early  on  the 
fourth.  About  '  twenty-four  o'clock,'  as  they  call  it  at  Rome,  that  is  to 
fay,  about  fun-down  of  that  fame  fourth  day,  a  provokingly  pleafant- 

looking  Italian  walked  into  my  ante-room,  with  the  poodle  dead ! 

The  little  animal  had  come  to  the  man's  houfe,  or  rather,  I  fuppofe,  had 
been  felonioufly  carried  there,  and  carefully  guarded  for  three  days.  On 
the  fourth,  however,  pet  poodle  had  efcaped  for  a  moment  into  the 
Corfo.  The  Due  de  Grammont's  heavy  carriage  happening  to  be  paffing 
by  at  that  fame  moment,  terminated  the  ftory.  It  went  ftraight  over 
poor  poodle's  neck,  filver  collar,  gold  bells  and  all ! 


Note  12,  page  67. 

THESE  two  papers,  fo  fortunately  difcovered  by  Mr.  Brodhead,  are 
probably,  as  he  fuppofes,  the  earlieft  iffues  of  Bradford's  prefs  :  for 
though  Bradford's  appointment  dates,  as  Mr.  Moore  has  difcovered,  from 
the  10th  of  April,  1693,  we  know  that  his  f  tools  and  letters,'  which  had 
been  feized  by  the  religious  faction  in  Philadelphia,  were  not  reftored  to 
him  until  April  28th,  or  afterwards,  of  that  fame  year  (fee  fupra  57-8), 
on  which  day,  juft  named,  the  Governour  and  Council  ordered  them  to 
be  furrendered  to  him.  He  could  thus  have  hardly  got  his  prefs  in 
operation  at  New  York  before  June  8th  when  the  papers  now  difcovered 
are  dated.  The  original  of  the  paper  printed  on  page  67-8  may  be  feen 
at  Albany  in  the  Colonial  manufcripts  (xlix,  139).  It  is  printed  in  the 
Documentary  Hiftory  of  New  York  ra,  253,  quarto  edition,  or  417-8, 
octavo  edition ;  though  by  a  blunder  of  the  printer  of  that  work  the  im- 
print by  Bradford  is  omitted.  Mr.  Brodhead  has  fuggefted  to  the  State 
authorities  at  Albany  that  this,  the  earlieft  iflue  of  the  prefs  of  their  State 


Appendix. 


"3 


and  now  perhaps  unique,  mould  be  reproduced  in  fac-fimile  as  Bradford's 
propofals  to  print  the  Bible  with  the  Common  Prayer  have  been  in  Phi- 
ladelphia. The  thing  would  be  generally  gratifying.  A  document  To 
precious  ought  not  to  be  left  in  a  fmgle  form  of  exiilence.  If  done,  the 
reproduction  mould  have  as  a.  counterpart  the  ftill  more  curious  Dutch 
form  of  the  paper  difcovered  by  Mr.  B  rod  head  in  the  Archives  of  the 
Collegiate  Reformed  Dutch  Church  in  New  York. 

It  is  a  curious  fact  in  the  early  hiftory  of  New  York  that  the  money 
collected  throughout  the  Provinces  to  redeem  captives  fold  into  flavery  on 
the  Coaft  of  Barbary  went  finally,  the  priibners  having  been  redeemed 
otherwife,  or  being  unredeemable,  into  the  Treafury  of  Trinity  Church. 
(See  Documentary  Hiftory  of  New  York,  iii,  419,  oclavo  edition.)  It 
was  an  early  application  of  the  Chancellor's  doctrine  of  Cypres  ;  made 
in  accordance,  however,  with  the  Provifo  in  the  licence  to  collect  the 
money. 

Note  13,  page  93. 

THIS  eminent  perfon,  it  was  confidently  fuppofed,  would,  but  for 
his  death  at  this  moment,  have  fucceeded  Mr.  Edmund  Ran- 
dolph who  had  juft  then  retired  from  the  office  of  Secretary  of  State. 

In  1784,  Mr.  Bradford  intermarried  with  Suian  Vergereau  Boudinot, 
only  daughter  of  the  Honourable  Elias  Boudinot,  LL.  D.,  of  New  Jerfey. 
This  pure  and  gentle  lady,whofe  character  difplayed  every  beneficent,  every 
amiable  virtue,  and  whofe  manners  prefented  a  charming  union  of  court- 
linefs  with  amenity,  long  refided  at  Burlington,  New  Jerfey,  with  unim- 
paired powers,  and  unabated  lovelinefs  of  fpirit ;  illuftrating  hereditary 
wealth  and  ftation  by  the  graces  of  an  honourable  hofpitality  ;  to  numerous 
friends  and  connexions,  the  fource  of  kindnefs,  and  the  object  of  pride 
and  pleafure.  She  died  November  30,  1854,  far  advanced  in  her  90th 
year.  Mr.  Bradford  had  two  fitters ;  both,  in  their  refpective  fpheres, 
as  eminent  as  himfelf  for  fuperiority  of  mind,  and  exalted  excellence  of 
moral  virtue.  One  of  them  was  married  to  the  Honourable  Elifha 
Boudinot,  Efquire,  of  Newark,  New  Jerfey,  the  other  to  the  Honourable 
Jolhua  Maddox  Wallace,  Efquire,  of  Burlington,  in  the  fame  State  ;  names, 
both  of  them,  connected  in  New  Jerfey  with  the  Federal  politicks  of 
Walhington ;  an  honourable  diftinction  in  their  own  day,  and  a  greater 
one  perhaps  in  ours,  which  now  vindicates  the  wifdom  of  his  opinions. 
P 


ii4 


Appendix. 


The  following  is  the  infcription  upon  Mr.  Bradford's  monument  in 
St.  Mary's  Church  Yard,  Burlington,  New  Jcrfey  : 

Here  lie  the  remains 
of 

WILLIAM  BRADFORD, 
Attorney  General  of  the  United  States 
under  the  Prefidency  of 
WASHINGTON} 
and  previoufly, 
Attorney  General  of  Pennfylvania  and  a  Judge 
of  the  Supreme  Court  of  that  State. 

In  private  life 
he  had  acquired  the  efteem  of  all  his  fellow  citizens  : 
In  profeffional  attainments, 
he  was  learned  as  a  lawyer  and  eloquent  as  an  advocate  s 
In  the  execution  of  his  publick  offices, 
he  was  vigilant,  dignified  and  impartial. 
Yet 

in  the  bloom  of  life  ; 
in  the  maturity  of  every  faculty 
that  could  invigorate  or  embellifh  the  human  mind  j 
in  the  profecution  of  the  mod  important  fervices 
that  a  citizen  could  render  to  his  country ; 
in  the  perfect  enjoyment  of  the  higheft  honors 
that  publick  confidence  could  beftow  upon  an  individual ; 
Bleifed 

in  all  the  pleafures  which  a  virtuous  reflection 
could  furnifh  from  the  paft 
and  animated 
by  all  the  incitements  which  an  honorable  ambition 
could  depict  in  the  future, 
He  ceafed  to  be  mortal. 
A  fever  produced  by  a  fatal  alfiduity 

in  performing  his  official  truft 
at  a  crifis  interefting  to  the  nation, 
fuddenly  terminated  his  publick  career, 
extinguifhed  the  fplendour  of  his  private  profpe&s, 
and 

on  the  23d  day  of  Auguft  1795, 
in  the  40th  year  of  his  age, 
configned  him  to  the  grave, 
Lamented,  Honoured,  and  Beloved. 


/vt-l. 


J  Or*  aJi 
^^^^ 


^  vt£,£**£  ex.  jfco+£%£>  /err-  ^J^<S&^^^£,.  Jfojt^ 


Propofals  for  the  Printing  of  a  large  BIBLE, 
by  William  Bradford. 

T~Hefe  are  to  give  Notice,  that  it  is  propofedfora  large  houfe. 
JL  B.bletobe  Prmted  by  way  of  Subfcriptions  [a  method  usual 
ill  England  for  the  printing  of  large  Volumns,  becaufe  Printing  is 
very  chargeable]  therefore  to  all  that  are  willing  to  forward  fogood 
(and  great)  a  Work,  as  the  Printing  of  the  holy  Bible,  are  offered 
tlir-fe  Propofals,  viz. 

1 .  Thar  it  fliall  be  printed  in  a  fair  Chara&er,  on  good  Paper,  and 
well  bound. 

2.  That  it  fhall  contain  the  Old  and  New  Teftament,  with  the 
Apocraphy,  and  all  to  have  ufeful  Mai-ginal  Notes. 

y  That  it  fhall  be  allowed  (to  them  that  fubferibe)  for  Twenty 
Shillings  per  Bible:  [A  Price  which  one  of  thefame  volumn  in  England 
would  coll.] 

4.  That  the  pay  fhall  be  half  Silver  Money  ,and  half  Country  Produce 
at  Money  price.  One  half  down  now,  and  the  other  halfon  thedeli- 
very  of  the  Bibles. 

5.  That  thofe  who  do  fubferibefor  fix,lhall  have  the  Seventhgratis, 
and  have  them  delivered  one  month  before  any  above  that  number  fhall 
be  fold  toothers. 

6.  To  thole  which  do  not  fublcribe,  the  laid  Bibles  will  not  heal 
lowed  under  26  s.  apiece. 

7 .  Thole  who  are  minded  to  have  the  Common-Prayer,  fhall  have 
the  whole  bound  up  for  22 «  and  thofe  that  do  not  fubfenbe  36  s. 
and  6  d  per  Book. 

S.  That  as  encouragement  is  given  by  Peoples  fublcribing  and  pay. 
ingdown  one  half,  the  laid  Work  will  be  put  forward  with  what 
Expedition  may  be. 

9.  That  the  Subfcribers  may  enter  their  Subfcriptions  and  time  of 
Payment,  at  P/ieneas  Pemtertons  and  Robert  Halls  in  the  County  of 
Bucks.  At  Malen  Stacy  %  Mill  at  the  Falls.  At  Thomas  Budets  Houfe 
in  Burlington.  A  t  Joh/i  Hafirng's  in  the  County  oKhefter.  At  Edward 
BMe's  mrtew  Caflle.  At  Thomas  iToodrooffs  in  Salem.  And  at  Willi ;am 
gradfvrd'smPht/ade/phi*,,  Printer  &  Undertaker  of  the  faid  Work.  At 
which  places  the  o'ubferibers  fhall  have  a  Receipt  for  fo  much  of  their 
Subfcriptions  as  paid,  and  an  obligation  for  thedelivery  of  the  number 
of  Bibles,  (fo  Printed  and  Bound  as  aforefaid)  as  the  i-efpeclive  Sub- 
Icribers  fhall  depofit  one  half  for. 

Alfothismay  furthergive  notice .  that  Samucll  Richard/on  and  Samuill 
Carpenter  oi Philadelphia.,  are  appointed  to  take  care  and  be  affiftant  in 
the  laying  out  of  the  Subfcription  Money,  and  to  fee  that  it  be  im- 
ploy'dto  theufe  intended,  and  confequently  that  the  whole  Work  be 
expedited.    Which  is  promifed  by 

Philadelphia,  the  1 4th  of  William.  Bradford. 

the  ill  Month,  1688. 


The  Original  is  in  the  hands  cfJfaJhan  Jt'ite  J'o.  t4J  Worth 
Fifth  Street  Thiladefphia. 


u 

H 


